


we're playing to a full house, darling (but this show can't go on)

by The_Ominous_Owl



Series: but we'll hold our pose, and await rapturous applause [1]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Actor AU, Celebrity AU, F/F, Minor Alex Danvers/Lucy Lane, Slow Burn, SuperCorp, enemies(ish?) to friends to lovers, no powers au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-08
Updated: 2017-08-26
Packaged: 2018-11-28 07:07:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 37,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11412807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Ominous_Owl/pseuds/The_Ominous_Owl
Summary: Kara’s struggling to find work. Lena’s struggling to find herself. When fate (with some help from Cat Grant) casts them into the same orbit they find themselves completely off-script, because while everyone knows about the sins of the father, they're somewhat less clear about the sins of one’s siblings. Throw into that an audience hungry for stories at the expense of fact, a showrunner with a plan nobody saw coming, and a co-star who steadfastly refuses to keep it in his pants, and you’ve got a tale so dramatic even the protagonists have noticed.orthe one where they’re both actresses with a surprising amount of baggage for two people who haven’t met yet.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> so i opened a page and this fell onto it. it's the surprise actor au you didn't know you wanted! unbeta's, so mistakes are all mine. mon-el is mike matthews for the purposes of this story.  
> i should also note that i know almost nothing about how to tv show, and most of the stuff i do know comes from an unhealthy obsession with those bts things on dvds. apologies for any glaring inaccuracies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lena-lite chapter to start, but i swearrrrr this isn't a kar*mel story, despite appearances.

_ Is This the End for Supergirl? _

_Oh how the mighty have fallen. Kara Danvers, former_ Supergirl _actress and darling of the silver screen, was seen yesterday leaving an audition for a daytime soap. Danvers, a relative unknown before her meteoric rise to stardom as lead of the acclaimed LuthorFilm franchise, has struggled to find work since the spectacular financial crash of the studio and arrest of studio head Lex Luthor twelve months ago. Industry insiders speculate—_

“I’ve told you not to read that trash,” a voice said from above Kara as the magazine was plucked from her hands.

“They’re calling me a _washed-up starlet_ , Alex!” Kara whined, letting her hands flop dramatically to the floor as her sister tossed the magazine to land among the remains of their Sister Night mess on the coffee table and sat down next to her.

“Is that why you’re sitting upside-down on my couch in your pyjamas at two in the afternoon?”

“I’m hiding. James is looking for me,” she grumbled. “He wants me to audition to host a game show. A _game show_. I hate game shows.” Kara could feel Alex rolling her eyes. “Maybe Noonan’s is hiring. I make awesome coffee.”

“You make terrible coffee. C’mere.” Alex pushed her legs off the back of the couch, swinging Kara around so Kara’s head was in her lap and gently carded her fingers through her hair. “You’re an amazing actor. Something will come along.” Kara’s heart ached at the guilt in her sister’s tone, but Alex continued before she could say anything. “Now get up and put some grown-up clothes on.”

“Why? And why are you home from work so early?” Kara asked, grabbing Alex’s wrist to look at her watch.

 “I took a half-day. Maggie’s coming over.”

That made Kara sit up. “Maggie? Are you two…?”

“She coming to get the rest of her stuff,” Alex said, standing and turning away. “It’s fine.”

Kara stood, wanting to hug her sister but unsure if Alex would accept it. Although Alex had told her repeatedly that she had nothing to do with it, Kara couldn’t help but feel responsible for Alex and Maggie’s breakup. Alex had been too focused on digging Kara out of her post- _Supergirl_ funk to notice the cracks forming in her own relationship, and by the time she realised she and Maggie had grown so far apart it was too late to fix it.

Alex turned to face her, saw Kara’s hesitation and pulled her into a hug anyway. “It wasn’t your fault. We just….wanted different things.” She released her and poked the crinkle between Kara’s eyes, earning a smile and half-hearted smack. “Now go call James before he comes here looking for you. I haven’t seen him since you two stopped dating, and I’ve got too much to do to pull the Scary Cop Big Sister act.”

“Okay firstly, you work in White Collar Crime, not scary, and secondly, he wouldn’t believe it from you anyway. He’s seen you cry during _Love, Actually_.” Alex pulled a face of mock outrage and started towards her, but Kara laughed and danced out her reach, heading for the bedroom where she kept a spare set of clothes. She changed quickly, and moved back into the living room to find Alex sitting on the sofa again, staring at her phone.

“Do you want me to stay?” Kara asked, making her sister flinch and lock her phone hurriedly.

“No, its fine,” Alex said, standing and pulling Kara into another hug then pushing her gently towards the door. “You have to go be a movie star.”

“Okay, okay, I’m going. Hey,” Kara caught Alex’s wrist. “I love you.”

Alex smiled at her and squeezed her hand. “I love you too. Now go, or you have to help me clean up.”

Kara pulled a face and scrambled towards the door, hearing Alex’s laugh echo behind her as she left.

**…**

There was a time, not so long ago, that Kara couldn’t just walk down the street without being mobbed by either fans or paparazzi. But interest in her had plummeted since she’d stopped working, to the point where if she went out like this – hair messily pulled up and face hidden behind oversized sunglasses – most people didn’t even give her a second glance.

At that time of day in downtown National City, her Uber only took five minutes to show up, and Kara dropped gratefully into the car. James called her twice during the drive but Kara muted both calls, instead chatting easily with the driver, a friendly middle-aged man who hadn’t looked too closely at his passenger. As a result, it wasn’t until he pulled over in front of her building and she thanked him before getting out that he recognised her.

“Hey, aren’t you—” he started, but Kara just gave him a friendly wave and disappeared inside her building, nodding to the doorman who held the door for her.

Her phone rang for the third time as she kicked the door of her apartment shut behind her, and Kara gave in and answered it gingerly. “James, I really don’t wanna host _Celebrity Wheel of Fortune_ …”

 _“Hello to you too,”_ her manager replied with a smile in his voice. _“Don’t worry about that. The deal fell through anyway.”_

“Oh.” Kara was surprised to find she was disappointed. She really hadn’t wanted to squeeze into a sequin dress and mock other vaguely famous people twice a week, but she’d thought she’d at least get that job if she tried for it. She was beginning to think that the fallout from _Supergirl_ really had left her as ‘toxic and unemployable’ as the tabloids were suggesting. “Okay…”

 _“No, Kara, it’s fine. I’m actually calling with good news this time._ Dusklight _wants you.”_

“What?” Kara nearly dropped the phone. _Dusklight_ was a ratings juggernaut of a show. “But—”

_“I know. Apparently the showrunner’s a fan. Or knows someone who’s a fan. Either way, you’re on a shortlist to audition for a regular love interest they’re introducing after the hiatus. I’ll send you the pages in the morning.”_

“But—” Kara said again, trying to work through her surprise. Lately, she’d had to google the shows James sent her to audition for, but not this time. _Dusklight_ was a prime-time drama midway through its second season that some English major of a critic had dubbed ‘detective-cape-punk’, and it was popular enough that the network had already renewed it through to its fifth season. It starred Mike Matthews as Jaxon Price, an NCPD detective who’d come out of a sting-gone-wrong with shadowy powers he didn’t understand and couldn’t fully control. The show was critically acclaimed for the depth of its storytelling and character arcs, and appearing on it had been a secret dream of Kara’s ever since she and Alex had started watching it. There was only one problem.

“James, that’s Lena Luthor’s show!”

Lena Luthor, sister of the infamous Lex Luthor, co-starred as Isabelle Lewis, the medical examiner that Price had gone to for help. She had weathered the storm surrounding her brother’s downfall gracefully, largely through the backing of showrunner Cat Grant, one of the most influential women in the industry. The famously media-shy star’s dislike of all things related to LuthorFilm was legendary, however, and Kara was certain that, as former lead of the studio’s biggest franchise, she definitely fell into that category.

 _“Kara, Cat Grant herself sent me this request. You have to go,”_ James said, forestalling any more of Kara’s objections. _“Besides, if you get this, even as a recurring, you could have work for years.”_

Kara sighed. It really was a good opportunity, and she wasn’t in the position to be turning down work at this point. “Okay, I’ll go. But if she kills me I’m telling Alex it was your fault.”

**…**

The audition was no different to any other audition Kara had done lately, except that there were only four other women trying for the part. _‘James wasn’t kidding about a shortlist,’_ she thought to herself, glancing around and realising that she recognised everyone in the room from one role or another.

As far as Kara could tell, the audition went well. The part was for a detective, a partner and love interest to lead actor Mike Matthews’ character, and Kara felt she cheated a little by just going into the room pretending to be Alex. There was a difference between actual detective and TV detective, but the casting director seemed satisfied with her performance, and even Cat Grant seemed… not happy, but definitely not unhappy, and Kara left the audition feeling better about her performance than she had in a while.

The producers obviously agreed with her, because two days later James called her saying they wanted her to go in for a chemistry read.

 _“It’s between you and one other,”_ he told her, and Kara had arrived at the studio to see the ‘one other’ was Leslie Willis, an actor whose most recent show had been cancelled after one season.

Leslie looked her up and down as she entered, then scoffed. “ _You’re_ my competition? Shit, I’ve got this in the bag, then.”

Kara wasn’t sure what to say to that, but was saved from having to respond by the appearance of Cat’s assistant. “We’re ready for you, Ms Willis. Ms Danvers, just wait here for a bit, it won’t be long.”

Leslie shot her another look as she followed the woman into the other room, but Kara ignored her and settled into a couch near the door. There was a low table covered in old magazines along the opposite wall, and Kara reached for one until she saw her own name on the cover. Grimacing, she tossed it back onto the table and pulled out her phone instead, opening twitter and scrolling idly through her mentions. There was nothing earth shattering in them, but it kept her occupied until the door opened again and Leslie swaggered out, looking her over as she left.

“See ya, Supergirl,” she said with a smirk, and Kara resisted the urge to poke her tongue out at her retreating form as she stood and followed Cat’s assistant into the back room. Cat Grant and the casting director from last time were both there, along with two other men that Kara guessed were network people, based on their expensive suits and bored expressions.

Kara opened her mouth to introduce herself, but before she could say anything, the woman in front of her stopped abruptly, causing Kara to stumble into the arms of a man she hadn’t noticed standing nearby.

“Woah there,” said her saviour, supporting her until she righted herself. “Falling for me already, eh?” Kara blushed and opened her mouth to apologise, but the words died on her tongue as she recognised Mike Matthews. He smiled at her disarmingly, which only served to rattle her further.

“You may begin,” Cat ordered from behind the desk, her expression faintly amused, and Kara stepped away from the star and struggled to fall into character.

They ran through the scene, but Kara was still flustered and off balance, and she was certain she’d blown it until Mike broke character halfway through a line and turned to Cat.

“I want this one,” he declared, as though Kara was a doll instead of a person, and she was caught between being offended and delighted that she might not have screwed this up.

The casting director had lent over and was whispering in Cat’s ear, but she waved him away and surveyed the two actors in front of her with narrowed eyes. The silence stretched painfully, and Kara did her best to channel Alex and not fidget under the scrutiny. Finally, Cat’s face spilt into a leonine grin, which should have been a good sign but did nothing to help Kara’s unease.

“I’ll have a contract drawn up and sent to your people. Congratulations, Ms Danvers. But lose the glasses, they make you look like a librarian.”

It took a moment for Kara to process the words, but when she did her heart soared. She almost bounced through her thanks you’s and farewell, and it wasn’t until she was dropping into the car, practically vibrating with excitement, that she realised that interacting with Lena Luthor, the woman whose brother had almost ended her career, had gone from hypothetical possibility to inevitable certainty.


	2. Chapter 2

_ Girl of Steel to Pick New Battle? _

_Former_ Supergirl _actress Kara Danvers has joined the cast of award-winning show_ Dusklight, _according to an announcement made yesterday during a radio interview with series regular Lucy Lane. But is all as it seems to be? Lena Luthor, sister of disgraced film mogul Lex Luthor, co-stars in the series as Dr Isabelle Lewis. Ms Luthor has long insisted that she had no idea about her brother’s alleged embezzlement, which led to the downfall of major film studio LuthorFilm and left Danvers, along with dozens of other actors, out of work and virtually unemployable. Our industry insiders speculate that Danvers’ casting was not a coincidence, and the fallen star may use this opportunity to settle the score. We here at_ StarFeed _can only hope Ms Luthor watches her back with her new castmate, and we’ll be sure to keep our readers informed of developments as they happen._

**…**

Kara’s first official meeting with Lena went better than she’d expected, though that was a fairly low bar. She’d spent the night before her first table read on the phone to Alex, working herself up while her sister did her best to calm her down.

“What if she makes Cat fire me in front of everybody?”

_“She won’t.”_

“What if she hates me?”

_“_ Nobody _hates you. It’s really annoying.”_

“What if she thinks I hate her?”

_“You don’t.”_

“I know, but what if—”

_“Kara, I love you, but it is after midnight and I have work in the morning. You have a call time. Lena isn’t going to hate you, and I’m pretty sure she can’t fire you. You carried three movies, you can handle Lena Luthor.”_

Kara’s fears eventually proved to be baseless, at least for now. Lena had arrived late to the table read, and Kara wasn’t actually officially introduced to anyone beyond Cat’s offhand, “This is Keira; she’ll be playing the love interest.”

“It’s Kara,” she corrected, but judging by the way that people were glancing between her and Lena, most of them already knew who she was.

Lena herself barely reacted to Cat’s announcement, just a flick of her eyes in Kara’s direction, and the showrunner continued as if Kara hadn’t spoken. “Okay, chop chop, I’ve got a meeting with the network suits in two hours, so let’s get through this.”

The rest of the read went smoothly, but Lena followed Cat out the door immediately after they finished, leaving Mike frowning at her retreating back. She’d looked at Kara maybe twice the entire time, and Kara couldn’t help the unease bubbling in her stomach. She couldn’t dwell on it for too long, though, because now Cat had left, the other regulars were coming to say hello, including,

“Lucy!” Kara squealed, nearly pouncing on the shorter woman in her enthusiasm. With all her stressing about Lena, she’d forgotten that Lucy Lane played the resident attorney on the show.

“Easy there, Wonder Woman, not all of us are made of steel,” Lucy joked, though she returned Kara’s hug just as tightly.

“You two know each other, then?” Mike asked with an amused smile as they broke apart. He’d stuck around to introduce Kara, and seemed to be going out of his way to make up for his co-star’s indifference.

“Lucy was in the first _Supergirl_ movie. We spent the longest week ever hanging from wires ten feet off the ground together.”

Lucy pulled a face. “Don’t remind me, I chafe just thinking about it. I don’t know how you did that for three movies,” she said, and Kara smiled bashfully and fiddled with her glasses.

Lucy introduced her to the other two regulars, Vasquez and Demos, who played another pair of detectives who were out of the ‘Jax has powers’ loop but had their own complicated romance storyline. The five of them chatted easily, giving Kara helpful tips and warnings, letting her know exactly what she’d gotten herself into. They were all very friendly and welcoming, and Kara was starting to feel better about her position on the show by the time Lucy glanced at her phone and grimaced.

“I’ve got a radio interview in twenty minutes. I gotta go make sure our illustrious showrunner doesn’t want me to plug anything specific.”

That signalled the break-up of their little gathering, but Kara caught Lucy’s arm as she turned to leave and lowered her voice. “Lucy, wait. James said someone suggested me to Cat…”

Lucy shook her head at the implied question. “Not me, but I wish I’d thought of it. You’re so perfect for this.”

“Even with…”

Lucy smiled. “Don’t worry about Lena. She’s not actually as terrifying as the press likes to pretend.”

“Don’t let her hear you say that,” Demos sing-songed from the corridor, making Lucy roll her eyes.

“Ignore him, Kara. You’ll be fine.”

**…**

Kara’s first day on the set of _Dusklight_ went both better and worse than she expected. She knew from the call sheet that her first scene was a one-on-one with Lena, with Mike joining them about halfway through. The elusive lead had yet to actually acknowledge Kara for more than a second at a time, and she was approaching the prospect of spending the next twelve hours with the woman with more than a hint of apprehension.

She forgot her anxiety briefly as she was getting changed in Wardrobe, and had to explain to a very confused costuming assistant that she was giggling because her cop sister had a cheaper version of the exact outfit they’d picked for her to wear. Her nerves returned by the time she got to hair and makeup, and she sat in the chair trying not to fidget as two strangers brushed and poked and painted her into character. She’d swapped her glasses for contacts, so instead she fiddled with the necklace that Cat Grant had apparently insisted she wear without telling anyone why.

By the time she made it to the soundstage they were filming on, Kara felt like a live wire of nerves. She took a moment in the corner to breathe, closing her eyes and letting the sound of the controlled chaos wash over her. She’d always felt at home on set, felt more like herself when she was about to become someone else, and the familiar bustle of movement and sound helped calm her, helped to remind her that she _could_ actually do this. She shook herself and moved into the swirl of people, heading for the centre of whirlwind where the director should be.

The director for this episode was apparently a regular one for the show, but Kara wasn’t sure which one because everyone kept calling him Snapper. She found him in a set dressed to look like a living room which was the backdrop for their first scene. Standing next to him was Lena Luthor, looking even more striking in person than she did on screen, and Kara was momentarily stunned by the sight of her. She stood there, frozen, until a short man with a comically long boom mic reminded her where she was by accidentally clipping her with it, and Kara shook herself and took a deep breath, steeling herself before approaching them.

“Hi,” she said as two sets of eyes snapped to her. “Um, Kara Danvers?”

“Right, the new girl,” Snapper said. “Well, you’re on time at least. Let’s block this out.” He walked off to the other side of the set, obviously expecting them to follow. Lena looked her over as they trailed him, then gave her a perfunctory smile that didn’t touch her eyes and kept walking.

Kara deflated a little. She’d built up a massive confrontation in her head, prepared herself to defend against any number of scathing remarks, and being dismissed without a word was almost a letdown. It was ultimately a better outcome than she’d expected, though, so Kara went with it.

Despite her scene partner’s aloofness, they flowed quickly through the scene blocking and rehearsal, and by the time they were ready to start filming, Kara was feeling much more confident.

The scene opened with Sara approaching Dr Lewis as she crouched over the body of the victim-of-the-week and introducing herself, and Kara got a whole two lines in before messing up.

“Hey doc, what’cha got?” Kara said, trying to walk with the added weight of the prop gun on her hip without looking ridiculous and mentally congratulating herself for hitting her mark without looking at it.

Then Lena turned to look at her, and it was as if a switch had been flipped. Gone was the coldly professional actress she’d been dealing with all morning, and in her place was a playfully flirtatious Isabelle Lewis, all green eyes and sultry “And who are you exactly?” and Kara forgot her lines, her character’s name, her _actual_ name, and the fact that there were at least two cameras pointed at her. Lena’s gaze was hypnotic, but when she arched her eyebrow Kara realised it was her turn to talk and she had no idea what she was saying.

“I um, I’m Kar—no, Sara, no, Detective Harper, crap.”

“Cut!” was called from somewhere behind her, and around her the set became a flurry of activity as the cameras, background extras and boom guy moved back to their starting position. On the ground beside the two women, the actor playing the victim cracked one eye open and chuckled, making the bloody mess of prosthetics on his throat move weirdly.

“Nailed that one, Danvers. Good job,” he teased.

“Shut up, Dead Guy, you’re supposed to be dismembered,” Kara muttered to him, ignoring the faintly amused quirk of Lena’s lips and turning to the director. “Sorry!”

“Get it together, Ponytail. Reset!”

The takes after that went better, and it only took another four tries before Snapper was happy with her performance. “Acceptable, I guess. Where’s Matthews?” he called to the room at large, sending a PA scurrying off the set in search of him. “Take five while we wait, people. And someone tell me Lane is at least in the building.”

The set dissolved into a bustle of movement as Snapper released them. Kara flinched slightly when a figure popped up in front of her, but it was just a hair-and-makeup assistant. She eyed Kara carefully, then nodded. “You’re fine. Try not to smudge your lipstick if you eat,” she said, then took off after Lena, who had stood without a word and was heading towards the door that led outside with her phone in one hand and a chattering assistant at her elbow.

Kara stood, disoriented by all the movement until a groan down by her hip reminded her she wasn’t totally alone.

“Here,” she said, offering a hand to Dead Guy and pulling him to his feet.

“Thanks.” He seemed surprised, and shuffled awkwardly for a moment.

“Hey, you’re Carl, right?” Kara said, tugging him towards craft services “Didn’t you play a taxi driver in season one?”

His face lit up. “Yeah, you remember that?” Ice broken, they chatted easily for a few minutes until the star of the show finally reappeared.

“I’m here, I’m here,” Mike called, emerging onto set with a red-faced PA behind him.

“Finally,” Snapper groused, looking around. “Where’s Luthor?”

“Here,” called her assistant from a secluded corner, where Lena stood talking softly but with obvious heat into her phone.

“Oh no, when you’re ready, Ms Luthor. It’s not like we’re on a schedule or anything,” Snapper called to her, earning himself an icy glare, but Lena did finish her call a moment later and shoved her phone at her assistant before stalking over to where Kara was waiting.

Mike reached her a few steps ahead of his co-star, and Kara was treated to the smile that had been dubbed National City’s Most Charming two years running.

“Kara,” he said, bumping familiarly against her shoulder. “It’s good to see you again.”

“You too,” Kara said, returning his smile as Lena reached them.

“Check your messages when we’re done,” she told Mike shortly, ignoring Kara completely. “I’m not arguing with your mother as well as mine.” Mike frowned at her then nodded sharply while Kara looked between them, mystified.

Any further conversation between them was cut off by Snapper stomping towards them. “Right, if Their Majesty are ready, let’s get this blocked out.”

The scene was an important one, despite being mostly expository dialogue. The show had been building an intense will-they-won’t-they dynamic between the two leads, and the introduction of Kara’s character as a romantic rival for Lena’s was designed to shake up that dynamic. It was a risky move by writers, interfering in the well-liked pairing that had been dubbed ‘Jaxabel’ by the fans, but Cat Grant had a history of risky moves paying off, and the current ratings meant that the network suits were giving her a lot of leeway.

Blocking out the scene took just under half an hour, and the actual filming took almost three. Watching Lena and Mike together was fascinating. They had an engaging rapport, and Kara was reminded of the rumours she’d heard that they were dating. Neither had publicly confirmed it, but they were seen together at all the right events, and watching them now, Kara could see why people thought that. Even if it wasn’t true, they were obviously used to working together, and knew each other’s quirks. It left her feeling very aware of how much of an outsider she was, which was the tone Snapper seemed to be going for in the scene anyway, so Kara went with it.

The co-stars were good scene partners, and they got through the takes quickly. Even though most of Snapper’s criticisms were directed at Kara, she only actually messed up one other take, and she still wasn’t sure if she’d really messed it up. The set dresser had come over to reapply Carl’s fake blood, and there was a new pool of it on the ground near Kara’s mark.  The script called for her to lean over the body at one point, and she slipped as she straightened, and would have fallen face-first into the sticky mess had an arm not snaked around her waist to brace her. Kara regained her balance and looked around, blinking in surprise when she met green eyes inches from her own.

“Careful, detective,” Lena murmured in a tone layered with meaning as she released her, and it took Kara a second to realise she hadn’t broken character and there had been no call of ‘cut!’ from Snapper.

“Um, thanks,” Kara stuttered out, glancing covertly at Mike. He shrugged minutely and continued the scene as if there had been no interruption.

They did three more takes after that one, and Kara was beginning to feel sorry for Carl, who’d been lying in the same position for hours, when Snapper finally popped up from behind his screens.

“Okay, we’re done here. Danvers, Luthor, you two are free. Matthews, courtroom scene. Someone tell Lane she’s got two minutes. Let’s go people!”

Most of the crew scurried off towards the other stage, and Kara relaxed and twisted to unhook the prop gun on her belt. It had been digging into her hip for the last forty minutes, and she almost whimpered in relief as the holster came loose in her hand.

“I remember those days,” said a voice from beside her, and Kara jumped and looked around to find Mike grinning at her. “You’ll get used to it,” he said, patting the prop on his hip. “I forget I’m wearing mine most of the time. If it’s bothering you too much, ask Wardrobe and they’ll give you a little pad to wear under it.”

Kara smiled at him, one hand massaging her hip. “Thanks, I might do that.”

“You were great today,” he told her, flashing that charming smile and standing just a bit closer than Kara expected. “I know the first day can be kind of overwhelming, but you handled it just fine.”

“Matthews! Sometime today!” echoed Snapper’s voice from the other stage, and Mike grinned again.

“No rest for the wicked.” He clapped her gently on the shoulder and turned to leave. “I’m looking forward to working with you, partner.”

Kara smiled at him and shook her head, thinking to herself that if everyone was as friendly as Mike, working on this show might not be so bad.

**…**

The first week flew by, and Kara found that she genuinely enjoyed working with almost everyone on set. Lena was still treating her with a kind of distant professionalism, and Kara wasn’t quite sure what that meant. Kara herself didn’t actually bear Lena any ill will, and she’d had a half-formed plan to try and get her alone to clear the air, but it was stymied by the fact that Lena seemed to be actively avoiding her. Her aloofness extended only to Kara, though, which she knew because she’d heard her giggling with Lucy between takes. The sound of it had stopped Kara in her tracks, and when her eyes found them near the director’s screens, she was stuck dumb by how stunning Lena looked when she laughed. She probably would’ve stayed there, frozen and entranced until the two women noticed her, but one of the lighting guys had almost run into her with one of the stage lamps, dodging out of the way at the last second and calling an apology. By the time Kara had righted herself, Lena was talking to Mike and the mirth on her face was gone.

Snapper didn’t even aim for professionalism, instead going for just plain mean, but he was an excellent director and the few scenes Kara saw in post-production were amazing.

She’d forgotten how exhausting a full week of filming was, though. The role had a physicality to it that Kara had missed when she was doing two-minute guest spots on sitcoms, but the stage fighting was more draining than she remembered. She was thankful that her filming schedule would lighten after a few episodes, once they’d introduced her character and established her personality. She was being written as an optimist who wasn’t naïve, but who hadn’t had her faith in humanity beaten out of her yet as a counterpoint to the sarcastic and cynical Isabelle and the jaded, brooding Jax. It was a fun dynamic, and Kara knew from reading the next couple of scripts that they were taking the time to establish Sara’s relationships with the other character before diving into the romance aspect, which Kara appreciated.

But for now, she was in almost every scene, hadn’t seen Alex for days, and – by the time Saturday rolled around – was about ready to drop.

“Right, you three are done. Get outta here.”

Kara almost collapsed with relief at those words. She’d just finished filming the final scene for the week with Mike and Lucy, she didn’t have to be back on set until Monday afternoon, and she was looking forward to going to Alex’s for a bit then going home and passing out for twelve hours.

Lucy had other plans. “C’mon Danvers,” she said, linking her arm with Kara’s and tugging her towards the trailers. “We’re celebrating you surviving your first week on set.”

Kara let herself be towed along but let her hesitation leak into her tone. “I dunno, Luce, I was meeting my sister after…”

Lucy’s eyes lit up. “Bring her along! I wanna meet this ‘Alex’ I’ve heard so much about.”

“C’mon, Kara, it’ll be fun!” Mike insisted, squeezing her shoulders from behind, and Kara sighed.

“Okay, okay, let me call her…”

**…**

The club – Vortex – was packed, but the bouncer guarding the VIP section recognised Kara and waved her and Alex through with a smile. They moved through the short corridor that opened onto a slightly smaller dancefloor that was less densely populated than the one out the front, but it still took some manoeuvring to get through to where most of the cast of _Dusklight_ were holding court.

“Everyone, this is my sister Alex,” Kara said as they reached them, raising her voice to be heard over the pounding bass.

Most of her castmates called or waved a greeting, but Lucy looked between them for a long moment then burst out laughing. “Oh my god, she’s a cop, right? Does she know Sara Harper is mostly you pretending to be her?” She dissolved into another fit of giggles, hitting a grinning Vasquez on the shoulder with her free hand, and Kara groaned.

“She isn’t—I’m not…ugh.” She gave up at the sight of Alex’s teasing smile. “I’m going to the bar.” She backed away, groaning again when Lucy slid further into the booth, patting the spot next to her with a vulpine smile.

“Sit here. Tell me _everything.”_

Kara made it to the bar and ordered – a fruity cocktail for her and some obnoxiously overpriced scotch for Alex – and was waiting for the bartender to come back when someone settled against the counter next to her.

“Kara Danvers. I thought you’d bailed on us,” Lena said, sipping something amber that glittered in the low light. It was the longest sentence she’d ever said to Kara that wasn’t scripted, and Kara was thrown momentarily by how different her Lena voice was from her Isabelle voice. The latter tended towards light and sarcastic to match her character, intended as a foil to Mike’s dark and brooding Jax. The former was lower, smokier, and in combination with the half-light and Lena’s glittering eyes, felt like a finger ghosting down Kara’s spine.

Kara laughed to cover her nerves and fiddled with her glasses. “Nope, just had to collect my sister first.”

“The famous Alex Danvers. I’ll have to say hello,” Lena said with a slow smile. The way her vowels were running together ever so slightly told Kara that the drink she was holding was at least her third, but there was an undercurrent to her words that had nothing to do with alcohol. Before Kara could puzzle it out, though, the bartender returned with her drinks. “Let’s not keep them waiting,” Lena said, pushing off the bar and gesturing for Kara to go ahead of her.

They made their way back over to the booth. Lucy shoved Vasquez further along the bench when she saw them coming, then tugged a startled Alex closer to her, leaving enough space for Kara to slide in next to her sister. Alex looked at the arm looped around her own, then at the actress it was attached to, then reached for the drink in Kara’s hand. Kara released it to her without the teasing she’d planned on, distracted instead by the interaction on the other side of the booth.

Mike was sitting opposite Kara, and there was enough space on his other side for him to slide over to let Lena sit down, but he didn’t. Instead, he twisted to the side, sticking one knee out and patting it invitingly. Lena’s eyes flashed for a split second, but then her expression melted into one of fond exasperation and she lowered herself gracefully onto his lap. Kara looked around and saw Alex with her cop face on and her eyes flicking between the pair, telling her that she hadn’t imagined the moment of irritation, but the others seemed oblivious and Lucy quickly diverted her attention.

“To Kara!” she called, holding up her drink. “Surviving her first week on set!” The others cheered and raised their glasses, and Kara blushed.

“To you guys, for helping me,” she countered, making them laugh as she drained her glass.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am going somewhere with this, trust me.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so i feel like this chapter got away from me a little, and i'm not sure how i feel about it, but ehhh. i'm also back at work now, so updates probably won't be as frequent, but i'm still gonna aim for a chapter a week.

_ StarSnap! _

_The cast of popular NCB series_ Dusklight _were snapped letting off steam in a trendy new hotspot in downtown National City on Saturday night. Co-stars and alleged sweethearts Mike Matthews and Lena Luthor were joined by regulars Lucy Lane, Susan Vasquez, Josh Demos and series newcomer Kara Danvers at hot new club Vortex until well into the early hours of the morning. The couple were openly affectionate all night, and were clearly enjoying their time together._

_“They were so cute,” one source told us. “He was so attentive to her, and she was sitting in his lap for half the night. #relationshipgoals, right?”_

_We’ve got more pics of the happy couple, as well as the rest of the cast, in link below._ Dusklight _returns on March 19 th on NCB._

**…**

The night passed in a haze of drinks and dancing and laughter. They stayed out far later than was probably wise, and Kara drank more alcohol than she had since college. She couldn’t remember much beyond Lucy pulling her onto the dancefloor, but she woke up alone, clothed, and in her own bed, which was a good sign, though there was a glass of water on her bedside table that she didn’t think she’d put there. Her head was hurting too much to give it much thought, though, so she just drained it slowly before fumbling for her phone to message Alex. She got a random string of emoji’s back a minute later, which Kara took to mean her sister was alive and feeling it.

Satisfied that nothing had gone catastrophically wrong last night, Kara dropped her phone back onto the pillow beside her and curled up, wanting a few more hours of sleep before dealing with her hangover. She was just drifting into that weird place between awake and asleep when her phone trilled loudly right beside her head. Kara jumped, then groaned and buried her head in her pillow when the sound stabbed through her brain. She groped for the demonic device blindly, only raising her head when she had to and blinking blearily at the screen to see the stupid selfie Winn had picked as his contact pic.

“Hmmphh,” she said intelligibly in greeting, pressing her face back down into the cool darkness of her pillow.

 _“Kara, he-ey,”_ Winn answered, squeezing more syllables into three letters than Kara thought was possible. _“Have a good night last night, did we?”_

That sort of question from her publicist-slash-social media manager should’ve raised red flags, but Kara wasn’t fully awake yet. “Mmmmmph.”

_“Yeah, didja have fun at Vortex?”_

That made her open her eyes and speak with words instead of sounds. “How do you know I was at Vortex?”

 _“Because, sister, you are all over just about every social media site I monitor,”_ Winn said, sounding far too amused for someone in damage control mode. _“Like, even the really obscure ones. I’m sending you a link to the best bits.”_

Her phone vibrated against her ear, and she sat up and stabbed the speakerphone button so she could open her Instagram.  “Oh god,” she muttered as the images loaded in all their dim, blurry glory. They were obviously taken on a phone from a fair distance away, but the subjects were still clear. The first showed Kara dancing, sandwiched between Mike and Lucy with Alex grinning like a lunatic behind them. The second showed Lucy tugging a reluctant Lena out onto the dancefloor, with Vasquez and Demos in the background laughing and holding Kara between them, who looked like she was trying to escape. Another one made her heart seize briefly, because it showed Lena and Alex sitting alone in a booth together, but when Kara looked closer she saw that they both looked…not relaxed, exactly, but certainly not hostile, which was a good start.

Then Kara found one that made her pause. It featured Mike enfolding Lena in a hug, with Lena’s chin resting on his shoulder. One of her arms was around his waist, but the other one was reaching out behind him to hold Kara’s wrist. Kara was smiling drunkenly at Lena, and she was staring back at her with her eyes narrowed searchingly. Mike – apparently unaware that Kara was behind him – was winking at someone off camera. All of it was unfamiliar, but seeing the pictures was bringing back disjointed flashes of memory from the night before; _Lucy laughing as she pulled her up to dance again— hands on her waist as she stumbled out of a spin— green eyes glittering inches from her own._

There were more pictures, but Kara got the idea. She groaned and dropped her phone into her lap and pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes. “Winn, this is bad. Alex is going to kill me, and then probably Lucy. This was all her idea.”

Winn laughed. _“I think Lucy’s safe. It’s not actually that terrible. There’s nothing that scandalous in there now, and it won’t hurt you to get some exposure,”_ he said, probably aiming for comforting but hitting amused instead. _“Just pick your favourite one and retweet it with a happy caption and boom, we control the narrative.”_

Kara groaned again, but did as he asked, scrolling back through the pictures. Her finger hovered over the one of her and Lena, but in the end she picked one that showed all seven of them goofing around and looking just like any other group of drunk twenty-somethings enjoying themselves. ‘ _Great night out with this bunch of lunatics!’_ she added as a caption, and tagged the official _Dusklight_ BTS account but no one else. She watched the likes flood in for a moment, and then fell back against her pillows, resting her phone on her chest and throwing an arm over her eyes.

Winn was obviously watching her account from his end, because he chuckled and said, _“This is what happens when you go out as one-sixth of the most telegenic cast on the planet_ plus _your incredibly hot sister who can probably actually kill me so please don’t tell her I said that.”_

“She not actually that scary,” Kara started, but as she spoke, her hungover brain caught up with the conversation and she paused. “Winn,” she said slowly, almost dreading the answer, “what do you mean there’s nothing scandalous _now._ ”

 _“I...Nothing! Nope, nothing, it’s fine,”_ Winn stuttered, and Kara sat up as her heart plummeted.

“Oh god, Winn, what did I do?” she asked breathlessly, mind racing through what little she remembered of the previous night and snagging on that picture of her and Lena.

 _“Oh, no, Kara, it’s not you, and I know technically that means I should’ve left it alone, but Lucy’s people were probably asleep and Alex doesn’t_ have _people and I didn’t wanna just leave it out there and—”_

“Winn!” Kara snapped as his babbled explanation got too rapid for her interpret while hungover. “What. Happened.”

 _“Lucy and Alex, they um… It’s probably easier if I just show you.”_ He trailed off, and after a second, her phone vibrated again. Kara clicked the message open and waited for the attachment to load with her stomach churning. _“I kept a copy for back-tracing, not anything…weird.”_

It was a photo, obviously from the same batch as the others. It looked later in the night; there were fewer people on the dancefloor, and the majority of the picture was focused on Lena tugging an unsteady-looking Mike towards the door. But in one of the booths in the background, out-of-focus but still visible, sat Lucy and Alex, twined together and obviously kissing.

 _“My crawlers caught it quickly enough that I don’t think it got further than the first post,”_ Winn explained as Kara sat staring at the picture, dumbstruck. _“I also did some totally-not-illegal snooping and corrupted the original, so whoever put it up shouldn’t be able to repost it. Besides, it’s pretty blurry, it’s possible they didn’t look close enough to notice what they’d got and you haven’t said anything yet. Are you okay? Kara?”_

“I…” The sound of her name broke her out of her daze, and she jolted herself out of bed, wincing as the sun hit her eyes but pushing through it. “I have to talk to Alex. I have to talk to Lucy. I…”

_“Well, I mean judging by that picture, there’s a pretty good chance you can do both at the same time…”_

“Winn! Not helpful!”

_“Sorry. I’ve already been in contact with Lucy’s PR guy, so they’ll be onto it if it does get out again, but really, Kara, it’s not that bad. I caught that one before it got out into the wild, and if the press runs anything other than a page six puff piece about the others, I’ll fry my hard drive.”_

Kara trusted him, she did, but… “I still need to see Alex.”

_“Okay. I’ll call you if anything comes up, but it’s gonna be fine.”_

“Thanks, Winn.” Kara said with a smile, thanking her lucky stars again that she had a friend like Winn in her corner.

**…**

It was early enough on a Sunday morning that the traffic wasn’t terrible, and it didn’t take Kara long to get to Alex’s apartment. She paced anxiously as she waited for the elevator, and fidgeted the whole way up, mentally cursing the fact that her sister insisted on living so high. She knocked exactly once before she went for her emergency key, but nudged the door open carefully and called a greeting before going in.

The jacket Alex had been wearing last night was slung over the back of the lounge, so Kara was confident that whatever else had happened, Alex had made it back here. She called out again, and there was muffled reply from the bedroom, followed by the sounds of someone stirring. Kara paced as she waited, pointedly ignoring the fact that there was a phone that wasn’t her sisters sitting on the coffee table.

After a few minutes, which to Kara felt like an hour, Alex emerged from her room wearing an oversized t-shirt that Kara was fairly certain belonged to her and looking like she hadn’t slept in a week.

“Kara, it is fuck-this o’clock on a Sunday and I didn’t get home ‘til almost three because _someone_ wanted to go clubbing,” she rasped, and Kara automatically moved into the kitchen to get her a glass of water, which she accepted gratefully and held to her head for a second before taking a sip. “Not that I don’t love seeing you, but—”

“Is Lucy here?” Kara interrupted, and her sister’s jaw snapped shut abruptly. “I really need to talk to both of you.”

Alex’s mouth opened and closed a few times before she managed to get words out. “What? No. Lucy? No, why would Lucy be here?”

Kara, guided by a lifetime of experience, said nothing and just waited as her sister talked herself out.

Finally, Alex sank onto the couch and wrapped her arms around herself. “Would it be okay?” she asked in a small voice that didn’t suit her. “If she was?”

“Of course it is.” Kara sank down next to her and wrapped herself around Alex’s shoulders. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

“I just…she’s your friend,” Alex said, guilt and self-loathing colouring her tone and making Kara’s heart hurt, “and I feel like I’ve taken so much from you already—”

“Alex, no,” Kara murmured, squeezing her arm. “You didn’t take _anything_ from me.”

“I sent your boss to jail. I almost ended your career.” Alex insisted, and Kara realised her sister might still be a little drunk, because they rarely talked about this if they were both sober.

“You did your job,” Kara countered, refusing to release her arm. “Lex Luthor embezzling millions of dollars and bankrupting the studio almost ended my career. All you did was make sure he got punished for it.”

Alex drew a breath to argue, but Kara continued before she could.

“And none of that has anything to do with you and Lucy. She’s my friend, and you’re my sister. I want you both to be happy. If that means the two of you being happy together, even…” Kara blushed but kept talking,” even for a night, that makes me happy. So yes, _if_ Lucy is here, it would be okay.”

Alex smiled softly at her, then tilted her head until their foreheads touched. “Love you,” she murmured, then straightened. “I’ll go get her.”

“No need,” Lucy said from the doorway, startling both of them. “Sorry. I didn’t wanna interrupt the moment.”

Kara smiled over at her, then frowned. “How do you _do_ that?” she asked, taking in Lucy’s appearance. She looked like she’d had ten peaceful hours of sleep, and her hair was far closer to perfect than the rats’ nest Kara had woken up with.

Lucy smiled at her. “Practice, younger Danvers.” Then she ruined the illusion by rubbing a hand across her eyes and pointing to Alex’s glass of water on the coffee table. “Can I get one of those?”

Kara pushed herself off the couch using Alex’s shoulder, earning herself a swat on the leg, and rummaged through the cupboard for another glass as Lucy took her vacated seat.

“Wait, how did you know Lucy was here?” It was a sign of how out-of-sorts Alex was that it hadn’t occurred to her to ask before. “I saw how much you were drinking, lightweight. There’s no way you remember anything after about ten-thirty.”

“Only flashes,” Kara admitted as she handed Lucy her water, realising that she was stalling but doing it anyway. “I’m not even sure how I got home.”

“Last I saw, Lena was herding you, Mike, and Vasquez towards the door,” Alex said. “I’m not sure what time. I was…distracted.” She was determinedly not looking at Lucy, which only made Kara grin at her anyway.

“That makes sense,” Lucy said with a smile. “Lena’s always been a bit of a mom-friend. Was there a glass of water near your bed?” Kara nodded, and Lucy chuckled. “Yeah, that was Lena. She likes to pretend she’s this big scary Luthor who can’t have friends or smile at children, but if you get past that she’s actually a really good person.”

Kara blinked at her. The picture she was painting of Lena was so far removed from Kara’s experience with her that she was having trouble processing it. She blinked again and filed that information under ‘to deal with later’ when she noticed Alex glaring at her with her Cop Face on, though the effect was somewhat undermined by her bed-hair and racoon eyes.

“Kara,” she asked slowly, “how did you know Lucy was here?”

Kara fidgeted with her glasses for a moment before looking at Lucy. “Have you checked your phone this morning?” she asked, and Lucy frowned and shook her head, reaching for the device on the coffee table. As she unlocked it and began thumbing through menus, Kara turned to Alex, who was trying to pretend she wasn’t looking over Lucy’s shoulder. “It’s not as bad as it looks, okay?”

Alex’s eyes were wide with dismay, but Lucy looked almost relieved. “These are actually pretty tame. Why are you…oh.” She opened a message, presumably from her publicist, and from where she was standing Kara could see a copy of the picture that she dearly wished she could unsee.

“Shit. Shit! I have to go,” Lucy said, standing and heading for the door, but Kara caught her arm before she got there.

“No, it’s okay. Winn caught that one before it went anywhere. No one else saw it.” Lucy visibly relaxed and let out a long breath. Alex hadn’t moved from her place on the couch, her expression carefully neutral, but Kara knew her well enough to spot the apprehension underneath it.

“Thank god,” Lucy murmured, but she glanced between them apologetically. “I still have to go, though. I have to let Jim yell at me in person or he’ll start sulking. But I’ll call you,” she said, crossing back to Alex and leaning over to kiss her gently. “Because last night was fun, and I’d like to do it again.” Alex blushed, but she was grinning like an idiot as Lucy straightened and pointed at Kara, who was politely and pointedly not watching. “You, I will see at work. Don’t let her freak out about the pictures.”

“I won’t,” Kara said with a smile, and Lucy disappeared out the door. “So…”

“Don’t start. My captain’s gonna kill me,” Alex said, but there wasn’t any heat to her words. “How bad is this? For you, I mean.”

Kara flopped down next to her and shrugged. “Winn says it’ll probably actually help. Something about getting more exposure or something.” She twisted so she could poke Alex with her foot. “Speaking of _exposure_ , you and Lucy, huh?”

Alex blushed but met her eye. “Yeah, me and Lucy.”

“You slept with Amara Chase,” Kara sing-songed, naming Lucy’s character on the show. While Alex had long since stopped being star-struck by celebrities, both because she interacted with them fairly regularly in her job and because she’d been to more than one event with Kara, she did still have celebrities crushes, and Kara had suspected that Lucy’s on-screen lawyer had been one of them.

Alex covered her face with her hands. “Oh god, don’t make it weird.”

“Is it serious?”

“It was one very drunk night. I don’t know. But I like her, and it’s fun. Isn’t that enough?”

Kara smiled at her. “Of course it is. I meant it, if you’re happy, I’m happy.”

“I’m happy.” Alex said, smiling, then rubbed her head. “Happy-ish. My head hurts and I need more sleep. You look like you to do. C’mon.” Alex stood and offered her a hand, but Kara shook her head with a disgusted expression.

“Ew, no, I’m not going anywhere near that bed until you change the sheets you defiled,” she said, struggling to keep a straight face.

“Then you might not wanna sit on that couch, either,” Alex said with a wicked grin, and Kara’s eyes widened as she sprang up, throwing herself into the armchair on the opposite side of the coffee table as Alex laughed.

**…**

The fallout from the photos was far less intense than Kara expected, and Winn wasted no time in doing his I-told-you-so dance after the few outlets that did pick the story up ran it with a tone closer to ‘look at those crazy kids’ instead of the ‘Kara Danvers, Drunken Mess’ that she’d been dreading. Most of the cast just shrugged and ignored it, though Lucy did pull her into a quiet corner of the set a few days later.

“Thank your twitter guy for me?” she asked, looking apologetic and vaguely nervous. “I know what that picture getting out would’ve meant. I didn’t mean to do that to Alex.”

“You were worried about Alex?” Kara asked, surprised. She liked Lucy, but she knew most celebrities would worry about their own reputation first.

Lucy smiled bitterly. “The press ignores me when I do shit like that. I could go down on her on the red carpet and the headline would be ‘Lucy Lane Enjoys Night Out With New Gal-Pal’.” She smirked when Kara pulled a face at that mental image, then shrugged. “They’re still confused by gay celebrities, bisexual ones are well beyond their understanding. But I know it could’ve hurt Alex’s career, and I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I’m glad you care,” Kara said, pulling her into a hug. “You said that to her too, right?”

“I did,” Lucy said, then pulled away and smirked wickedly. “Repeatedly.”

“Okay gross, that’s my sister and I do not need that in my brain.” Kara said, pushing her away as she laughed. “Hey,” she called when Lucy was almost to the door. “Remember, if you hurt her I know where she keeps her guns.”

“Yes, Ma’am.” Lucy turned on her heels and snapped out an almost perfect military salute that she’d picked up somewhere, but there was sincerity in her eyes so Kara smiled and waved her away.

**…**

Despite Kara’s vague hope that her drunk-self had said something that night that had magically smoothed over their relationship, Lena still seemed to be actively avoiding her, though every now and then Kara would catch her watching her with thoughtful eyes. Lena had been the least inebriated of them by far and she remembered much more of the night’s events than anyone else, and Kara was desperate to know what she’d said or done to provoke that scrutiny. But Lucy had been otherwise occupied, Mike couldn’t remember any more of the night than she could, and Kara knew Lena wouldn’t tell her, even if she could bring herself to ask.

So filming continued. The second episode was much the same as the first, but the third episode was based around them investigating a murder in Jax’s hometown, and meant that they spent most of the week shooting on location in a small town about an hour outside the city. While it was fun to get off the soundstage for a bit, there was a lot more waiting around while the production tried to balance the need to film quickly against unduly disrupting the lives of the people whose town they’d invaded.

It was during one of these interminable delays, when Kara was trying to decide whether it was worth ducking back to the production circus where their trailers were, that Mike bounded up to her and grabbed her hand.

“C’mon Kara, we’re going to the fan line to say hi,” he said, tugging her towards the makeshift barricades they’d put up after people kept wandering into the background of the shots. There was a sizable crowd there, but they seemed calm enough and the security guys were nearby, so Kara followed him without reluctance.

He didn’t release her hand until they were well in-view of the fans, and Kara swore she heard the ripple go through the crowd as they noticed. They were bunched up at one section of the barricade, and it took Kara a moment to realise that it was because Lena was already there, and had turned to watch her approaching co-stars with a raised eyebrow.

Mike seemed oblivious to the stir he’d created. “Hi guys!” he said, flashing his charm smile at them, and was quickly surrounded by fans.

Kara stood off to the side until one girl noticed her and gasped. “Oh my god, you’re Supergirl!” She rummaged briefly through her bag, then frowned. “I don’t have anything for you to sign,” she said, disappointed, and Kara smiled at her.

“That’s okay. Do you want a selfie?” she asked, pointing to the girl’s phone, and her eyes lit up as she nodded.

Recognised and with the ice broken, Kara spent the next twenty minutes working her way down the line, signing autographs and taking pictures and just generally interacting with people. She loved meeting fans, loved hearing their stories and seeing the things they’d created, and most of them seemed thrilled to just be able to say hi to her.

The flow of the crowd eventually pushed her closer to where Lena was standing with a security guy hovering at her shoulder, non-threatening but present, and Kara got a first-hand look at how the she and Mike interacted with their obviously-adoring fans. Mike was friendly, but Kara could see the falseness of it, the way he never really dropped out of character. Lena was a massive contrast. Kara had seen Lena at press events before, and she always seemed closed off and distant, but seeing her now was like watching a totally different person. She was genuinely warm and patient with the fans, with an almost awkward sincerity to her interaction that Mike lacked, and as she watched her Kara saw flashes of the person Lucy had described, the person who’d made sure her drunken co-stars got home and left a glass of water on Kara’s nightstand.

The fans responded to the warmth with familiarity, and some of the banter Kara heard made her eyes widen.

“Do you guys really hate each other?” one particularly blunt fan asked, making both women laugh, though Kara’s was closer to a hysterical giggle than Lena’s more graceful chuckle.

“Of course not,” Lena answered, smiling at the fan but not looking at Kara. “We spend far too much time together to hate one another.”

“Then can I get one with both of you?” the fan asked, holding up her phone.

“Of course!” Kara said, jumping in before Lena could say anything. She slid next to the fan as she handed her phone to her friend, wrapping an arm around the girl’s waist. Lena did the same on her other side, except her hand landed on the small of Kara’s back. Kara almost flinched at the contact and she glanced quickly at her co-star, but Lena was looking into the camera. Kara barely had time to shift her gaze back to the phone when she heard “Say cheese!” and she hurriedly plastered a smile on her face just in time for the shutter click.

“Thanks, you guys!” the fan said, bouncing out of their arms and reclaiming her phone. Lena dropped her arm and stepped away, turning to talk to another fan, and the spot on Kara’s back where her hand had been tingled.

Her attention was quickly claimed by other fans, but Kara caught her gaze wandering to Lena more than once through the small sea of people. She didn’t return Kara’s look, but when a hand landed on her back in the exact same spot, she flinched and turned, half-expecting Lena but instead coming face to face with Mike. He didn’t withdraw his hand when she turned, and the movement left it resting on her hip, which the fans were quick to notice.

Mike didn’t react to their murmuring. “Sorry everyone, but we’ve gotta go back now,” he said, partly to her and partly to the crowd, and Kara looked over his shoulder to see a harried-looking PA watching at them impatiently and speaking into his radio.

“Okay, lemme just…” Kara turned to call Lena, but found her approaching anyway. She was glaring pointedly at the hand Kara had forgotten was on her hip, and Mike dropped it with an apologetic smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“Shall we?” Mike said, gesturing back towards the set to the obvious relief of the PA behind him. Mike fell into step with them as they started back, and wrapped an arm around Lena’s waist as they walked. There was a collective ‘awww’ from the crowd behind them at the sight, and Kara could hear the click of several camera phones immortalising the moment. What they couldn’t see, though, was how Lena’s posture was all wrong for someone accepting an affectionate gesture from her boyfriend or how her face was settled into a mask of total neutrality and her hand was clenched into a fist over her stomach, and Kara spent the rest of the walk feeling like she’d missed something significant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ps: i love every single one of you who is reading and kudosing and commenting and just generally making my month. y'all are awesome <3


	4. Chapter 4

_ Is This Supergirl’s Revenge? _

_Insiders of popular drama_ Dusklight _have revealed exclusively to_ StarFeed _that tensions between feuding co-stars Lena Luthor and Kara Danvers have reached a new high, with Luthor storming off set after a heated argument last week. The pair have had a rocky relationship since the beginning, with Danvers – former star of LuthorFilm’s_ Supergirl _franchise – allegedly linked to owner Lex Luthor’s downfall and arrest eighteen months ago. That would be reason enough for friction, but_ StarFeed _has learned there might be more to the feud than meets the eye._

_“It’s about a guy, of course,” our exclusive source claims. “Kara made a move on Mike [Matthews, co-star of_ Dusklight _], and Lena caught them. She’s pissed that Danvers is trying to steal her man.”_

_Was this Danvers’ plan all along? If so, it seems like an elaborate way to get revenge on the Luthor family, and involving an innocent Matthews is a cruel extra step. We hope this doesn’t all end in tears for this unhappy cast._ StarFeed _reached out to all three for comment, but none of them got back to us._

**…**

After the third episode, they were back shooting primarily on the soundstages, with only the occasional location shoot in the city where the locals didn’t care as long as it didn’t slow their morning commute. The weeks flew by, and Kara finally felt like she was settling into the role and her place in the cast. Her workload didn’t lessen as much as she’d expected, and in fact often ran up against the limits stipulated in her contract, but she enjoyed what she did, so she didn’t complain too loudly.

She’d resigned herself to the fact that she and Lena would likely never be anything more than distant colleagues, though the other woman was the master of mixed signals, and more than once Kara caught Lena watching her with an expression she couldn’t read. It didn’t help that on-screen, Sara and Isabelle were quickly becoming good friends, no doubt set up to add another layer of drama to the inevitable love triangle Cat was constructing. Lena’s ability to simply _become_ her character continued to astound Kara, but rapid switch from Isabelle’s light-hearted banter and casual touches to Lena’s deliberate evasion and mask of professional indifference was almost enough to give Kara whiplash.

What was throwing her the most, though, was the hugging. Kara was an incredibly tactile person, often subconsciously, and it bled through into her acting. Cat had tried to break her of the habit during her weekly visits to set _(“you’re a detective not a care-bear,”),_ but had given up after a couple of episodes, instead rolling her eyes and writing it into the script, which meant that Sara often hugged her co-workers. Mike was fine, even if he held on a little longer than strictly necessary, and she frequently hugged Lucy off-stage anyway, but the first time Kara stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Lena she froze, standing stiff and unmoving until Snapper yelled from behind his screens.

“Cut! Luthor, you are not a statue! Loosen up and hug her. Again!”

The second time went better, though it was still a little awkward and Snapper called for another. Lena disappeared during the short delay while one of the camera guys adjusted an angle that Snapper wasn’t happy with, and Kara tried not psych herself out while she waited for her to come back.

She needn’t have worried, because on the third take they tried, Lena _melted_ into the hug in a way Kara wasn’t ready for. They moulded together almost perfectly, and when they finally separated the expression on Lena’s face made Kara’s stomach swoop like she’d missed a step. Then the shutters came down behind her eyes, leaving Kara confused and missing something she wasn’t sure she ever had.

Mike continued to be his friendly, charming self, often hanging around after he’d wrapped to talk to her or smuggling her snacks from craft services between takes. He went out of his way to be friendly, and Kara was happy that she’d made at least one new friend on set, even if Lena’s eyes burned every time she saw them laughing together. Mike and Lena’s relationship was confusing, and watching them together left Kara feeling like she’d missed half the script. They were relaxed and comfortable with each other, and they often went out to greet the fans together, but there was an undercurrent to their interactions that was just slightly _off_ , somehow, some little quirk that Kara couldn’t quite put into words but noticed more and more the longer she worked with them.

Lucy continued to be just as bad an influence as she had been on the set of _Supergirl._ She and Alex had fallen into a relationship that Kara didn’t fully understand, but they both seemed happy in it, so Kara didn’t interfere. She didn’t have many scenes with Vasquez or Demos, but when she did she enjoyed them, and the pair were always fun to have a drink with after they’d all finished work.

All in all, Kara had fallen into a routine, not completely happy, but content with the way things stood, and made the mistake of mentioning that one night to Alex. It was the ultimate fate-temping move, so naturally the universe chose that week to write her an epic plot twist.

**…**

They were filming the last episode before the two-hour finale, in which Sara discovered Jax’s powers and the fact that he and Isabelle had both been lying to her. It was a highly emotional scene between the three of them that would pay off in the final episode, but running through it so many times and maintaining that level of visible anguish for so long was strenuous, and after one particularly gruelling take, Kara excused herself to a little-used prop room to calm down and compose herself.

Kara had just regained control of her breathing and was trying to dry her eyes without completely ruining her makeup when a noise behind her made her spin around.

“Hey, it just me,” Mike said, holding up his hands briefly as he approached her before resting them on her shoulders. “That was amazing, Kara.”

“Thanks.” Kara gave him a watery smile, dabbing at her eyes again. “Sorry, I’m usually better at this, I swear.”

He laughed and pulled her into a hug. “It’s okay,” he said softly. “You were incredible.” He pulled back slightly, and a tingle of warning ran down Kara’s spine when she realised that he was too close and getting closer.

“Mike!” Kara jerked her head back, eyes wide. “What are you doing?”

“C’mon, Kara, I know you feel it too…” He tilted his head forward again, seeking her lips with his, and Kara took a step back, twisting out of his arms and raising her hand to stop him following.

“No I don’t! We can’t—what about Lena?”

“Yes Mike, what _about_ Lena,” a voice said from behind them, and Kara’s heart plummeted as she turned to find the woman in question standing in the doorway wearing a positively glacial expression.

Mike took a hasty step away from her, and might even have had the grace to look sheepish, but Kara wasn’t sure. She couldn’t look away from Lena as she stalked towards them, eyes flashing dangerously. “Lena, I didn’t—we weren’t—” Kara started, but Lena held up a hand to silence her.

“I told you when I agreed to this ridiculous, _farcical_ idea that you had to be discreet,” she hissed, ignoring Kara completely and stopping close enough to Mike that he was forced to step back. “That I didn’t give a shit who you slept with, as long as you had the decency not to embarrass me in the process.”

“Right,” Mike scoffed, showing what Kara thought was a great deal of fortitude in the face of an infuriated Lena Luthor. “Like you haven’t had your fun.”

“Not _on set,_ ” Lena spat. “Not with someone who’s two steps away from a media shit-storm as it is!”

Kara was tempted to ask what she meant, but she was fairly certain that they’d both forgotten she was there and really didn’t want to remind them. Their argument was dripping with things left unsaid, and Kara had never felt more lost in a conversation she was theoretically part of.

“You wanna talk about media shit-storms? What about those photos of you and Lucy in Edge that Mother had to bury?” Mike had straightened, and was obviously trying to loom over his co-star as he spoke, but Lena was still wearing Isabelle’s heels, making them almost equal in height, and was obviously not intimidated.  “How was that not supposed to embarrass me?”

“Please. Lucy and I just went for a drink, and everybody in this industry seen in Edge eventually. Rhea covering it up was more incriminating than if she’d just left it alone.” Lena said, rolling her eyes, and Kara finally placed the name with a start. Edge was one of the most popular gay clubs in the city, and dots in her head started to connect as the implications of the last few moments dawned on her. “Besides, that’s irrelevant. I ignored your trysts with the mousy little assistant because she works for Cat Grant and she knew how things stood. Kara obviously doesn’t, and I will not ignore it if you do that to her.”  Kara froze at the sound of her name. She’d been trying to edge quietly towards the door, now certain that this was not a conversation she should be listening to.

Mike looked at Kara when she flinched and his eyes lit with a sudden understanding. A slow, knowing smirk crept across his face as his gaze slid back to Lena. “Ah, now I see.”

Lena’s eyes narrowed. “I doubt that,” she said, but Kara got the impression that Mike had scored a point. “Stay away from her, or the deal’s off and you,” she poked him in the chest, “get to explain why to Rhea.” With that, Lena turned and swept from the room, leaving a ringing silence behind her.

“Well. That was dramatic,” Mike said after a moment and with an obviously forced chuckle, turning to face Kara. “I’m sorry you had to see that, she’s not usually that intense.”

Kara recognised the distraction tactic, and wanted none of it. She would rather not have witnessed the argument between the two leads, but she wasn’t going to pretend it didn’t happen, or that she was okay with what had caused it. “I don’t like cheaters, Mike,” she said, and his expression froze. “I don’t know exactly what’s going on with you two, but I do know you were happy to let me think you were cheating on Lena when you kissed me, and I’m not okay with that.”

“Kara,” he started, his tone hitting all the right notes of shame and chagrin, and Kara mentally cursed the fact that everyone involved in this was an actor, people who literally lied for a living.

Kara shook her head and backed towards the door. “I think we should just stay professional, Mike. I’d like to be your friend, but I don’t want anything more from you.” She hovered in the doorway long enough to make sure he heard her, then turned and fled the room, feeling like something significant had just shifted underneath her.

**…**

“Kara,” the assistant director called as she re-emerged back onto set, oblivious to her disquiet. “Ms Luthor says she’s got a migraine and needs the rest of the day, so we’ve had to rework the schedule a bit. We won’t need you again until tomorrow morning.” Kara blinked, then nodded and thanked the woman, who rushed off before Kara had finished speaking.

At a loss, Kara detoured to Wardrobe to change into her street clothes, and then headed for her trailer. She had her phone out and was trying to decide whether or not to call Alex, who was probably at work but would pick up anyway, when movement in the corner of her eye made her flinch back towards the door before her brain identified the figure on her couch.

“I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t be here,” Lena said, standing and holding up her hands in apology. She was still wearing Isabelle’s clothes and her stage makeup, and she looked more unsettled than Kara had ever seen her. “I just wanted…I think I owe you an explanation."

Kara softened at that. “You don’t owe me anything, Lena. It’s none of my business.” She crossed the small room to her dresser and took out her contacts, replacing them with her glasses before digging around in a draw and retrieving a packet of makeup-removing wipes.

“I think our idiot co-star has chosen to make it your business,” Lena countered bitterly, resuming her seat when Kara waved a hand at her. “I’m sorry he put you in the middle of this. And I’m sorry for telling him to stay away from you. It was presumptuous of me.”

“No, it’s…I mean it was, but it’s okay,” Kara said, sinking down next to her and offering a wipe, which Lena took with a small smile. “I don’t completely understand what’s going on, but I don’t want…whatever that was. I don’t want that from him, and I really don’t want to come between you two.”

Lena laughed, but it was a harsh, mirthless sound. “There is no _us_ , Kara. Not in that way.” She looked over and sighed at Kara’s confused expression. “It’s just… a mutually beneficial arrangement suggested by his mother.  Her son dating a Luthor opened certain doors for her, and it let me hide…preferences I would rather not have public.” She met Kara’s eyes carefully, and Kara blinked and snapped her jaw shut when she realised exactly what Lena was implying. She’d inferred as much from the last part of the argument, but the fact that Lena was all but outing herself to her was a display of trust that Kara hadn’t expected. “Also, it infuriated _my_ mother, which is always a bonus.”

“So you’re not actually…?”

“Dating? Not really.” Lena smiled wryly. “My publicist tells me the popular term is a ‘merk’, but all it really means is that we let ourselves been seen out together, get handsy in interviews and voila, the press declares we’re sleeping together.”

Kara frowned. She’d heard of PR relationships, but she’d never actually seen one or stopped to consider the logistics involved. “What does Mike get out of it?”

Lena quirked an eyebrow at her. “You mean apart from the most attractive woman in the room hanging off him at every event we attend?” she asked archly, making Kara blush and stammer until she dropped the act with a smile and shrugged. “I don’t know. I never cared enough to ask. I assume Rhea’s paying him. Although apparently he’s not getting what he wants out of it at the moment. He’s been baiting me with you for months now.”

“What?” Kara asked, puzzled, and Lena’s expression turned amused.

“Did you not notice he’s been hitting on you since you started on the show?” Kara shook her head slowly, mentally running over every interaction she could remember, and Lena chuckled. “You’re adorable.”

Kara blinked, then shook her head, filing that information in her growing ‘to deal with later’ pile and going back to an earlier part of Lena’s revelation. “She’s paying her son to date you? That’s so—that’s just…”

“That’s show business. That’s politics. Rhea is neck deep in both.” Lena shrugged again. “It is what it is.”

“Well I think it sucks. And even if you’re only fake-dating, he shouldn’t be trying to sleep with people you work with. It’s just rude and disrespectful and…” she trailed off when she noticed Lena staring at her, a sort of confused wonder in her eyes. “What?”

“You really don’t hate me,” she said as if she couldn’t quite believe it, and it was Kara’s turn to stare. “I thought… you were drunk, and then you were just being polite, but… God, you _should_ hate me. I was ready for you to hate me.” Lena smiled in a way that didn’t quite reach her eyes and ran a hand through her hair. “After all that stuff with Lex…He devastated your career.”

Kara frowned in confusion. “Why would I hate you for that? You didn’t have anything to do with it. I heard you actually tried to save the studio before anyone knew how bad it was.” She dropped her gaze and felt her cheeks warm. “If anything, I thought _you’d_ hate _me._ ”

“For what? Earning him all the money he embezzled?” Lena laughed, genuinely this time, and shook her head. “Lex’s accountant, maybe, but never you.”

“Not just that. Alex sent him to jail,” Kara blurted, standing up and starting to pace. “I mean, not personally, but she was on the team investigating him. I think she actually _led_ the team investigating him. And I was at the party when they arrested him, and everyone thought I’d set him up but I didn’t, Lena, I _swear—_ ”

“Kara, stop,” Lena interrupted, catching Kara’s hand and tugging her back down onto the couch. “I knew all of this already. But if you don’t hate me for Lex, how can I hate you for Alex? At least she was just doing her job.” She released Kara’s hand to rub across her eyes and laughed wryly. “Look at us. Little sisters carrying the burden of guilt for their siblings.”

“Well now that we know we don’t hate each other,” Kara said with a smile, dropping her gaze to her lap and fidgeting with her glasses. “Can we maybe be friends?”

She looked up when Lena didn’t respond to find her gazing at her with an unreadable expression.

“You missed a spot,” Lena murmured eventually, plucking the wipe from Kara’s hand and using it to stroke a line along her jaw. “Friends don’t let friends go out looking like they let Lucy do their makeup.”

That startled a laugh out of Kara, and she finally relaxed back onto the couch with a warm feeling in her chest.

**…**

Shooting the two-hour finale with Mike was awkward, but thankfully she didn’t have to actually film a kiss with him. Cat and the writers had opted to go with an emotional cliff-hanger, with Sara helping to save the day but leaving the precinct feeling hurt and betrayed by the other characters, and Kara would have been worried she was being fired if she didn’t already have a renegotiated contract for next year.

It was a little like she’d stepped into the Twilight Zone, though, because where before she’d had Lena going out of her way to avoid her and Mike being almost overly friendly – behaviour which creeped Kara out now she knew the reason for it – now it was Mike who was dodging off set when he wasn’t needed, and Lena who was laughing with her between takes. It was almost as if she’d traded one co-star for the other, and Kara privately thought that she’d got a better deal. Lena was wickedly funny, with a self-depreciating sense of humour that came out at the strangest times. She was fiercely protective of people she considered friends, and Kara found she was almost sad to discover what she’d been missing out on for the first few months of filming.

The crew couldn’t fail to notice the change in dynamic between the three of them, especially given that Kara had taken to eating lunch in with Lena in her trailer, a habit she didn’t notice she’d picked up until Lena pointed it out.

(“Your trailer’s so much bigger than mine,” Kara had whined when Lena poked gentle fun at her new obsession. “Plus it’s got a real bed.” Lena had smirked and quirked an eyebrow at that, and Kara’s stomach had done a weird fluttering flip and she’d quickly changed the subject.)

Kara had overheard many inventive theories about what had changed between herself and the two leads – her favourite was that she and Lena still hated each other but were being forced to pretend by Cat Grant – but most of them were thrown off by the fact that the relationship between Mike and Lena hadn’t outwardly changed. Kara suspected that Lucy had worked out it wasn’t real, and Lena had said that Cat and her assistant knew, but Kara wasn’t sure who else was in on the deception. Now she was aware of it, she could easily see the falseness of their interaction, how forced the affection was, but to the majority of the people they worked with, Lena and Mike were still the same happy couple they’d been before. But Kara could see the minute flashes of irritation on Lena’s face when Mike turned on his boyfriend act when she wasn’t expecting it, and it made Kara’s stomach twist unpleasantly every time.

One incident stood out to her. They were shooting on location for the first part of the final episode, and the fans had caught wind of it early enough that there was a small group of them on the outskirts of the set. Mike tugged Lena out to greet them, and Kara went with them because, whatever else was going on, she did love meeting the fans. They’d ducked out between takes, so they couldn’t stay long, and when it was time to head back Mike got Lena’s attention by sliding a hand onto her back. It rested just high enough to not be indecent, and Kara saw the way Lena stiffened, and how her smile became forced and plastic.

“You shouldn’t have to let him touch you like that,” Kara said later, when they were both hiding in Lena’s trailer while they waited for it to be dark enough to start shooting the night scenes. “Doesn’t it bother you?”

“I’m used to it,” Lena said, and Kara’s heart ached at the resignation in her eyes. It must have shown on her face, because Lena smiled at her reassuringly. “It’s not that bad. He knows where the line is, and he can be downright gentlemanly when he feels like it.”

“Still…”

“I knew what I was getting into when I agreed to it.” Lena said, reaching out to take her hand. “It’s fine, Kara.”

“I just…You’re worth more than that. More than him. It’s not fair,” Kara said, and surprise flashed across Lena’s face. She opened her mouth to say something, but before she could there was a polite knock on the door of the trailer, and a PA calling that they were needed back on set.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> y'all are beautiful human beings and i love you. happy comic-con, everyone!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay, so i feel like i need to note that this chapter was 95% written before SDCC imploded, and very little of it is influenced by what went down. that said, i did want to wait a bit before posting it to give everyone a chance to calm down a bit.
> 
> i have many Thoughts and Feelings about what happened, but the big thing i want everyone to take away from this is that supercorp belongs to us, and actors being douchebags at cons can't take that away, no matter how hard they try. my [ ask box](the-ominous-owl.tumblr.com/ask) is open to anyone who needs to talk, but know that every single one of you is valid and valued and amazing, and i love you.
> 
> serious owly over, now lets jump back into a world where nothing bad happens at cons and actors are all useless lesbians. i'd also like to confess that i've never been to a con, because i live in australia and the fun ones never come here, so my bad if there are any glaring inaccuracies

_To: w.schott@deotalent.com_  
_From: j.olsen@deotalent.com_  
_subject: twitter shitstorm?_

_Winn, this is a random selection of Kara’s recent mentions. You got a plan for this? Call me. James._

_@KaraDanvers @LLuthor32 @MikeM  I AM SO SORRY THIS FANDOM IS A TRASH FIRE_  
_@KaraDanvers maybe don’t be a homewrecker next time?_  
_LET @MikeM SLEEP WITH WHO HE WANTS BE HAPPY FOR @KaraDanvers #NOJUDGINGLOSERS_  
_did yall see how @KaraDanvers reacted? she and @MikeM are defs fucking_  
_girl was rude af to ask. sorry @KaraDanvers @LLuthor32 @MikeM_  
_c’mon guys, it’s their business. Leave @KaraDanvers alone #actorsarepeopletoo_  
_Poor @LLuthor32 didn’t ask for this. @KaraDanvers shouldn’t be blaming her for her brother_  
_JAXABEL 4 LIFE @KaraDanvers CAN FUCK OFF_

**…**

Once they finished shooting the last two episodes, Cat gave them all one week off before they had to dive into con season and beginning of the show promotion. Kara spent the first couple of days catching up on sleep, had lunch with Lena, spent time with Alex (and therefore Lucy) and even managed to squeeze in a Game Night with Winn and James.

The first stop on the promotion tour was DuskCon, a long-running three-day fan convention in Metropolis that had enthusiastically adopted _Dusklight_ because of the similarity in the names. It was the only con of the season that the whole cast would be at, and it was the first con Kara would attend since before the release of the third _Supergirl_ movie.

The cast plus Cat and Alex – who Kara had smuggled into her con entourage with a bit of fast-talking, aided and abetted by Lucy – flew to Metropolis together on a chartered jet. They met early in the morning on the tarmac of a small airstrip on the outskirts of the city, hoping to avoid being delayed by the legion of fans that would waylay them if they flew out from the major airport.

Kara and Alex were the last to arrive, and they pulled up to see the others bunched loosely near the stairs to the plane. Demos had his phone out, but Kara didn’t realise he was filming until he pointed it at her.

“It’s Karaaaaa,” he said, and she smiled and waved, unsure if he was live-streaming but knowing the video would almost certainly end up online either way.

The jet was bigger than Kara had been expecting, and the interior looked more like a corporate hotel suite than a plane, with an actual lounge about halfway down the cabin. The boys and Vasquez quickly claimed that, so Kara dropped into the obscenely comfortable seat next to Lena.

“Are you okay?” Kara asked, noticing the way Lena was fidgeting nervously with her phone as the plane began to taxi.

“I hate flying,” Lena answered, smiling tightly. “I know it’s statistically the safest way to travel but... Luthor control issues, I guess.” She grimaced as the plane began its take-off roll, and her knuckles were white where she was gripping the arm rest.

Kara gently pried her fingers loose and slipped her hand under Lena’s. “Cat wouldn’t let us get out of promo that easy. She’d fly us to Metropolis using sheer willpower if she had to,” she joked, startling a laugh out of her co-star. Lena made a visible effort to relax, but she squeezed Kara’s hand as the wheels left the ground, and didn’t release her grip until the plane levelled off of couple of minutes later. She relaxed slightly as the others started moving around, but Kara could still see the tension in her shoulders and the carefully controlled cadence of her breathing.

“C’mon, you two,” Lucy said, popping up from the seats in front of them. “Cast selfie on the couch, because this plane _has_ a couch and there’s no way I’m not bragging about that.” She was watching Lena shrewdly, and Kara realised that they’d probably flown together before and Lucy would know that Lena hated it and was trying to distract her.

Alex ended up snagging Kara’s phone to take the picture as they arranged themselves on the couch and pulled stupid faces, uploading them to Kara’s public Instagram account and tagging everyone. The fans were quick to respond, and Kara ended up turning it into a surprise _#askKara_ on twitter, with the others chiming in. While she did love talking to her fan, she also had an ulterior motive. Nothing distracted Lena better than interacting with her fans, and by the time they began their decent, she was relaxed and laughing with Lucy at the questions they were getting.

**…**

The hotel they were staying at was part of the convention centre complex, and there was a limo waiting to take them there when they landed. They only had a short time to get changed and styled before they had to head over to the first official DuskCon event, and Kara had had about three coffees on the plane and was jittery and wound up and more than a little anxious. She bounced nervously around the room where the women were getting ready until Lena looked at her with fond exasperation and caught her arm, pulling her into a chair so the stylist could do her make-up.

But the opening ceremony was fun. Lena and Mike were up on the stage, and then being shepherded around for photo ops with the other headliners, but Kara mingled with the other celebrities and fans lucky – or rich – enough to score an invite. Alex stayed with Kara for the first part, but she and Lucy disappeared not long after the official formalities had finished and only reappeared just as the con staff were ushering the _Dusklight_ cast into the press room.

The carpet interviews were first. Kara’s handler steered her towards the section of the room where a group of cameramen were hovering, and she went along the line of reporters, smiling for the cameras and trying to pretend she wasn’t answering the same three or four questions over and over. Lucy was just behind her in the line, and Kara had to stifle a laugh when she realised that she had given four wildly different but technically correct answers to the same question from separate journalists.

“Cat’s gonna kill you,” Kara muttered to her as they reached the end of the line and their handlers urged them towards the tables, but Lucy only grinned.

The table interviews were longer, which allowed the groups of reporters to ask a larger variety of questions. Because she was new to the cast and couldn’t talk too much about her character yet, Kara had been paired with Lucy, and they wound each other up enough that the interviews went quickly. Cat had given them an outline of what they could and couldn’t talk about, and Kara was proud of herself for mostly sticking to it.

After the press room, Kara had a meet-and-greet with the fans. While Kara loved any interaction with her fans, she particularly loved the closer, more intimate setting a meet-and-greet offered, with time to actually talk to people and get to know them a little. She knew everyone else in the room had paid to be there, and did her best to make sure each fan felt included. She had nothing scheduled for the rest of the day, so she let the session run over time until her handler’s polite reminders became too insistent to ignore.

**…**

It was a long, exhausting day, and after the meet-and-greet Kara would have happily gone back to her room and collapsed into bed, but Lena had other plans. They ran into each other in the lobby of the hotel, and Lena caught her hand and tugged her towards the bar.

“Kara! Thank god, I really need a drink,” she said, running her free hand through her hair, and Kara let herself be towed along. The hotel had three bars, but the one Lena chose had been unofficially designated a fan-free zone, giving the celebrities and other con guests a place to unwind in relative privacy. They ordered their drinks, then tucked themselves away in a quiet corner.

Lena downed her first drink and ordered a second, quickly enough that Kara was concerned.

“Are you okay?” she asked, and Lena smiled crookedly at her.

“Yeah, sorry. I just hate playing girlfriend all day like that,” she explained, and Kara’s stomach twisted in an increasingly familiar way. Lena either saw it on her face or anticipated her reaction, because she shook her head as Kara opened her mouth. “No, it fine. I just don’t want to think about it anymore. Distract me?”

So Kara did. She told her stories about the fans she’d met, complained about the stupid interview questions she’d had to answer, and joked about Lucy’s antics in trying to lose her handler so she could steal some time with Alex. By the time they were both on their third drink, Lena was far more relaxed, and was laughing easily at Kara’s anecdotes. Her laugh still mesmerized Kara, even after months of working together, and Kara had enough alcohol in her that telling her that seemed suddenly important.

“You’re gorgeous when you laugh,” Kara said with a smile, and the sound trailed off as Lena’s expression softened. They’d been sitting further apart when they’d started, drifting slowly closer over the course of the night, but Kara hadn’t realised exactly how close they were until Lena licked her lips and Kara realised she could see the tiny creases where her lipstick had rubbed off. Then she realised that she was staring at her mouth and Lena hadn’t said anything yet, and Kara jerked her gaze back up to Lena’s eyes as she took a breath.

“Kara, I…” Lena started, but stopped as someone stumbled up behind them.

“So this is where you ended up. Hi Kara,” Mike said, dropping himself into a chair opposite them and leaning over the table. He’d obviously had far more to drink than either of the women, and even sitting down he was swaying slightly.

“Mike,” Lena said, and it was like a shutter had come down behind her eyes. All the warmth disappeared from her expression, and her spine stiffened when he leaned closer to her.

“Hey Kara,” Mike began loudly, oblivious to the change in atmosphere he’d brought with him, “do you know how many people asked us when we’re getting married today? I almost wanted to set a date just to make them happy.”

“That’s, well…” Kara stumbled over her response, even as Lena hissed out Mike’s name admonishingly.

“Yeah, maybe that’s something we should think about, hey?” he continued, ignoring both reactions and reaching for Lena’s unfinished drink. “You could be maid of honour!”

“I’m just gonna go,” Kara said, standing and backing away from the table. She’d had too much to drink to deal with whatever power play was going on between her two co-stars and their fake relationship.

“You’re an ass,” she heard Lena tell Mike, followed by the sound of a chair scraping back behind her.

“Don’t be like that, Lee,” Mike called after her. “Fine, leave me. Maybe I’ll come visit you later.” That made Kara stop and look back at him, only to see him wink and grin lasciviously at them before Lena caught her arm and tugged her back around.

“Ignore him,” she ordered, linking their arms and guiding Kara out of the bar.

“He doesn’t—” Kara started, horrified and furious, but Lena cut her off quickly.

“No. God no. I don’t even let him kiss me,” she said, but Kara’s eyes were still wide at the mental image he’d conjured.

They’d reached the elevator, and Lena turned to face her as they waited for the doors to open, bringing a hand up to cup Kara’s cheek.

“He’s never, Kara. He wouldn’t dare. He’s just drunk and trying to wind you up,” she said, tucking a loose strand of hair behind Kara’s ear. Her eyes were full of sincerity, and she was close enough that Kara could taste the alcohol on her breath. The elevator dinged open next to them, but Lena didn’t move. “I promise, darling, he’s never touched me like that.”

“Okay,” Kara said softly, and Lena looked relieved and dropped her hand, but it still took Kara most of the ride up to force the image from her brain and calm the hot anger clawing at her stomach.

Kara’s room was closer to the elevator than Lena’s, and she caught Lena’s hand as they drew level with it. “Come and watch a movie with me,” Kara said, unlocking the door and tugging Lena into her room. She didn’t think Mike would actually follow through on his drunken suggestion, but the idea of him forcing his way into Lena’s room was still festering in the back of her mind, and Kara couldn’t bear to leave Lena alone.

“Kara…” she started, hesitant, but allowed herself to be pulled along.

“The idiot downstairs undid all my distracting. Let me try again?” Kara begged, flashing Lena the puppy-dog eyes that worked on everyone who wasn’t Alex.

A smile crept slowly across Lena’s face. “Fine, one movie,” she acquiesced, kicking off her shoes and letting Kara lead her to the couch.

Later, when Alex finally made it back to the room she was supposed to be sharing with Kara, she found the two of them asleep and draped over each other and just smiled. She crept close enough to toss a blanket over the sleeping pair and then snuck back out the door, hooking the DO NOT DISTURB tag to the handle on the way out and heading for Lucy’s room instead.

**…**

Kara woke up alone the next morning, stretched out on the surprisingly comfortable hotel couch, but there was the fading warmth of another body lingering around her and she found a tray from room service in the kitchenette with a note that just said ‘thank you xx’. Kara stared at Lena’s elegant handwriting for a long moment, then folded the note in half and tucked it into her phone case before digging into the still-hot food.

The second day of DuskCon started with a run of longer interviews with the whole cast for the larger outlets, but before they went into the room Cat ushered the six of them into a quiet corner and rounded on them.

“The network is concerned about the stories that have been leaking to the press about the infighting in this cast, and frankly I’m tired of being talked at by old white men in bad suits. So,” she glared at each of them in turn, but focused particularly on Mike, Lena and Kara, “I don’t care what kind of millennial drama you have going on, when you’re in that room, you’re all the best of friends. Plumb the depths of your acting ability if you must, but for god sakes, get along.”

Kara wasn’t happy when she saw the seating arrangement, but Cat glared at her before she could say anything, so instead she focused on trying to fall into the character of Kara Danvers, Actress Who Wasn’t Furious At Her Co-Star, and succeeded for the most part. The first two interviews were fairly standard, boring stuff and Kara sat, sandwiched between Mike and Lucy on a too-small couch with the others perched on stools behind them as they all answered pre-approved questions off the cheat sheet of talking points Cat had given them before the con. The third was more fun, with a reporter who’d got his start on YouTube and was known for his comically-serious but often zany interviews.

“And my next question is for Kara; it comes from twitter. ‘Did they call your character ‘Sara’ so you wouldn’t forget the name?’” he asked, straight-faced but with a playful twinkle in his eyes.

Kara laughed genuinely. “Well, I am blonde,” she answered, sending a ripple of laughter through the room. “But I don’t think so?” She twisted to look over at her showrunner, who smiled mysteriously.

“I guess we’ll never know,” Cat said, triggering another burst of giggles and a mock outraged look from Kara.

“Next one to Mike, also from twitter. ‘Have you got stock in a hair-gel company or is your hair just naturally like that?’”

Even Cat laughed at that one, and Lena reached forward to ruffle the hair in question as Mike preened. “Well, you know some of us are genetically blessed…” he said, while the others groaned theatrically and Lucy leaned across Kara’s lap to shove him off the couch.

The next interviewer was from _StarFeed_ , and came armed with actual twitter questions, most of them about the characters’ relationships that left Kara and the two leads carefully prevaricating under Cat’s watchful eye. Kara was proud of herself for masking her distaste every time Mike made not-so-subtle insinuations about his relationship with Lena, and she was relieved when she check twitter later to find that any tension that had slipped through had been misinterpreted as the cast playing coy.

**…**

After the run of interviews came the panel, and Kara was genuinely shocked by how many people were in the room. She hadn’t seen that many fans in one place since the very height of her _Supergirl_ fame.

The moderator spent a few minutes winding the crowd up, and they played a short clip from the mid-season premier. Kara couldn’t see the screen from where they were waiting behind the stage, but she could hear the audio, and she was surprised when she recognised the scene they were showing as the first scene she’d shot, the one where she was introduced to Lena’s character. Kara, out of habit, mentally recited the lines as they were spoken, but fumbled and stopped when the dialogue paused. Then Lena’s voice, lower and throatier than Kara remembered it being when they filmed, reverberated through the room.

“Careful, detective.”

Kara whipped around to look at Cat when she realised that they’d left in her unscripted stumble and Lena’s recovery, and found she wasn’t the only one. Lena was staring at the showrunner with narrowed eyes, but Cat gave nothing away, just returned the searching look with a small enigmatic smile.

“You—” Lena started, but was cut off by the moderator calling Cat’s name, and one of the con handlers trying to politely urge them up onto the stage.

The room looked bigger from the stage, and there was a massive publicity still behind them as a backdrop, which Kara found disconcerting to look at. She took her seat between Lena and Lucy and squinted out at the audience, almost blinded by the stage lights. She could just make out Alex sitting in the front row, and she grinned and waved at her as the audience cheered.

Once they were all out on stage and seated – Mike had taken longer to sit than the rest of them because he’d waited to pull Lena’s chair out for her, a move which garnered cooing from the crowd but made Kara’s guts twist unpleasantly – the moderator calmed the audience down and launched into his opening spiel about the show before turning to the panel. His questions were all scripted and pre-approved, designed to lead them into the talking points for the second half of the season and divided between the cast so that they each got a chance to talk. For them, it was all very boring and PR, but it generated the soundbites the network had wanted and the audience ate it up.

Then they opened the floor for questions.

The house lights came up slowly, letting Kara get a better look at the audience, and she was surprised to see just how long the line for the microphone was. It stretched to the back wall and curved around the last row of seat, and Kara knew that less than half the people standing would get to ask their question unless the con planned on keeping them there all night.

The first few questions went fine. Some fans were confident and articulate, and others were breathless with nerves, but Cat and the cast did their best to answer in a way that would satisfy them without giving too much away, and for the most part they succeeded. The majority of the questions went to Lena and Mike, which Kara had expected, but she did get more than one, and only one of those was _Supergirl_ related.

Then a girl in a green sweater stepped up to the mic, and there was something about her manner that sent a warning tingle down Kara’s spine. The girl was young, probably still a teenager, and she looked like she was shaking with nerves, but her voice was mostly steady as she spoke.

“Um, my question’s for Kara. Is it true that you’re trying to get between Mike and Lena?” she asked in a breathless rush, getting the question out a split second before the mic was cut off. The panel members froze as the room erupted, and con handlers rushed to hustle the girl away from the mic stand.

To Kara’s right, Lena and Mike had both leaned out of range of their microphones to have a quick, hissed conversation through forced smiles and clenched teeth while beyond them, Cat was glaring at the moderator as he tried to regain control of the room. Kara was sure her own face was frozen in an expression of dumb surprise, and probably would’ve stayed that way had Lucy not nudged her hard from her other side, startling a slightly hysterical laugh out of her.

“Ha, no, that’s just—I wouldn’t do that, I…” Kara babbled, half drowned out by the noise of the crowd and distracted by Alex making throat-slashing gestures from the front row.

A silvery laugh cut through the hubbub before she could make a bigger fool of herself, and Kara almost sank onto the table in relief. “Someone’s been reading _StarFeed_ , I see,” Lena said as the noise died down, her expression arranged into one of artful amusement. “Of course it’s not true. Mike and I both consider Kara a good friend, despite what the tabloids would have you believe.”

“But, let’s be real, who could blame her,” Lucy cut in with mischief in her eyes. “I know I wouldn’t mind _getting between_ you two.” Her tone was low and flirtatious, and elicited a look of surprised amusement from Lena, a vaguely speculative glance from Mike, and a cacophony of screams and wolf-whistles from the crowd. It was an excellent deflection, and Kara nearly hugged her in gratitude.

By the time the moderator regained control of the room, the question had been mostly forgotten, although Kara did see two con staffers going down the line of people waiting for the mic, hastily screening the questions like they should’ve done to begin with.

The rest of the panel passed without incident. Lena and Lucy egged Kara up onto the table to demonstrate her Supergirl poses, Vasquez spoke for a solid two minutes without actually saying anything or answering the spoiler-bait question she’d been asked, and Lena and Mike skilfully dodged well-meaning but invasive questions about their relationship. The audience loved it, and by the time they were being cheered off stage, Kara was confident most of them had forgotten the girl in the green sweater.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes, i did name the character 'Sara' specifically to make that joke. i couldn't help myself.  
> and yes, kara is completely oblivious, but she'll get there, i promise.
> 
> ps: katie mcgrath is an utterly awesome human and i would follow her into hell with a smile on my face.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you guyyyyyssss. i'm seriously feeling the love right now, y'all are awesome. i'm so glad people are enjoying this fic.
> 
> i love this chapter, because it has my favourite ever trope: completely contrived bed-sharing. i couldn't help myself. also, i finally came up with a fictional name for the fictional ship i thought up, and it continues this fandom's tradition of ridiculous ship names and it's somewhere in this chapter and i love it.
> 
> anyway, carry on

_ Luthor vs Supergirl: The War Escalates at DuskCon _

_Drama unfolded at DuskCon over the weekend, with_ Dusklight’s _Kara Danvers involved in an altercation with an apparently deranged fan. The aggressive confrontation was filmed by con-goers and uploaded to social media, and shows the fan confronting Danvers before being subdued by an off-duty detective from National City. But in an interesting twist, a source from MetropolisPD has revealed to_ StarFeed _that the fan has a long history with Danvers’ co-star Lena Luthor and her brother, former LuthorFilm head Lex Luthor._

_“This is clearly a deeply troubled individual,” our source told us, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “I think both of these ladies should be very careful when dealing with this man.”_

_But is there more to the story? Danvers and Luthor have a rocky relationship, with Luthor’s brother being responsible for the spectacular crash of Danvers’ movie career. Industry rumours suggest that Danvers retaliated by attempting to seduce Luthor’s long-term boyfriend and co-star Mike Matthews, though all three have denied it._

_Is this latest controversy simply the next step in their ongoing war? Sources close to the cast suggest that Luthor may have reached out to her devoted fan, and used him to try and end the conflict once and for all, a fitting plan for the notoriously ruthless Luthor family. We here at_ StarFeed _can only hope that the two feuding co-stars find a more peaceful way to settle their differences before anyone else suffers for it._

**…**

After the panel was the autograph session, and their con handlers ushered them into a large room with a long table set up at the far end with another massive promotional photo of the cast hanging behind it. Even after starring in three movies, Kara still wasn’t used to seeing larger-than-life versions of herself staring back at her, and she took her seat quickly to avoid having to look at it.

She wanted to talk to Lena, wanted to ask her about the panel and make sure she wasn’t bothered by the question about her and Mike, but they were running behind schedule as it was and the con staff were rushing to get them into position. They were barely all seated and set up before they opened the doors and let the fans flood in. And flood in they did. There were hundreds of them, but they were well behaved and the con staff quickly corralled them into a somewhat orderly queue that snaked through the room and back out the door.

The fans were all excited and full of enthusiasm, and their exhilaration was contagious. As newest cast member, Kara was seated at the far end of the table, which meant she got to read some of the things the others had written, and many of the messages made her smile. She signed hundreds of pictures, trying to include a personal message with each of them despite the fact the staff were trying to rush through as many people as possible to make up for lost time.

A bit over two hours in, Kara was leaning back, flexing her cramping hand and fishing for her bottle of water in her bag when movement further down the table drew her attention. She glanced around to see one of Lena’s security guys leaning down to whisper something in her ear.  Lena had stiffened in her seat, but her expression was fixed in her Meeting Fans Face, hiding any other reaction to whatever he was telling her. Kara’s attention was quickly reclaimed by the fans in front of her, but she kept glancing down the table at her friend, and she could see the way Lena didn’t really relax again, and how she kept scanning the line of waiting people with a carefully controlled expression.

Later, as the autograph session was winding down and the cast were standing to leave, Kara was surprised when she spotted three guys from Lena’s security team waiting behind them. Most of the celebrities at the con had someone nearby, but Kara had never seen Lena with more than one at a time, and she’d never kept them so close. The three of them formed into a protective wall of muscle around her as she left the room, and Kara knew Lena well enough to spot the anxiety she was hiding from the fans that were still lingering around.

“What’s going on?” Kara whispered to Alex, who was hovering at her shoulder and actually behaving like the bodyguard Kara had told the con officials she was.

“I’m not sure, but they’re nervous, which makes me nervous. Let’s get back to the hotel,” Alex said, urging Kara toward the door with a gentle hand on her back.

**…**

They made it out to the lobby of the convention centre before they discovered what had Lena’s entourage so on edge. Kara didn’t even see the man approaching her through the crowd, but Alex did. Her sister pulled her to a stop as he stormed up to them, his face twisted in anger.

“You!” he started, pointing a shaking finger at Kara, but Alex got between them and shoved him backwards with a hand on his chest.

“Back off. Now.” Alex’s voice was pure icy authority, and the man blinked at her for a second before starting forward again.

“No! She’s trying to ruin it! She’s trying to take him from Lena! I have to stop her!” he shouted, trying to push past Alex as Kara backed up a step, confused and startled.

Alex shoved him back again. “Last warning, sir. Back. Off.”

“No! She’s a fucking slut, I have to—”

He didn’t get to finish his sentence, because when he tried to push past Alex again, she gripped his arm and moved her legs and _twisted_ , and the guy hit the ground with a wheezing gasp. She flipped him onto his stomach before he got his breath back, bringing his hands together over his spine to stop him moving.

“I’m Detective Danvers, and you’re under arrest,” Alex told him, but he continued to babble incoherently into the carpet as con security finally pushed their way through the circle of people that had stopped to watch the confrontation.

“Cops are on the way,” one of them told Alex, handing her a pair of plastic zip-ties that she looped around her captive’s wrists while behind her, Kara wavered between getting closer to check on her sister and staying away, lest she set the crazy guy off again.

“Good. Move these people on and get someone to escort Ms Danvers back to her room,” Alex said, and the guards leapt to obey her tone almost automatically despite the fact she had no actual authority to be ordering them around.

“Alex…” Kara started, but her sister shook her head at her.

“I’m fine, Kara, just please go back to your room while I sort this out,” Alex pleaded, and Kara acquiesced reluctantly, turning to follow the hulking security guard who was hovering at her shoulder.

**…**

Kara spent the next hour pacing her room restlessly, checking her phone every couple of minutes and unable to settle as she waited for Alex. She ordered diner from room service, but only ate a few bites, then picked at it until it went cold. Finally the sound of the electronic lock beeping announced her sister’s return, and Kara greeted her with a hug.

“Are you okay? What happened? Who was that guy?”

“I’m okay, he didn’t touch me,” Alex assured her, returning her hug tightly and trying to urge her toward the couch, but Kara was still too wound up to sit. “The local uniforms took him in for me as a courtesy since I technically don’t have the jurisdiction to arrest people here, but—”

Her explanation was cut off by a rapid staccato of knocking on the door, but Alex caught Kara’s arm as she moved to answer it.

“Kara!” a voice called, and Alex rolled her eyes and released her, letting Kara open the door to admit a frantic Lena. She was barefoot and had her phone in her hand, and her eyes were wide and worried.

“I’m so sorry, are you alright? Did he hurt you? Is Alex okay?” Lena asked, reaching for Kara with her free hand but stopping short of actually touching her.

“We’re both fine,” Kara said, ignoring Lena’s hesitation and folding her into a hug. Lena’s arms came up around her instantly, and her hands gripped at the back of Kara’s shirt as she dropped her head into the crook of Kara’s neck. Kara was surprised, both by how tightly Lena was holding her and the fact that her friend was actually shaking. “Lena? What’s wrong?”

“Sorry. Sorry, I just…” she murmured into Kara’s neck, then raised her head but kept her arms wrapped around her. “I saw the video and I thought…”

“There’s a video?” Kara asked, surprised, and Lena chuckled.

“We’re at a con. There are at least a dozen. It’s all over twitter,” Lena told her, and Alex sighed in exasperation behind them.

“My captain is gonna _kill_ me,” she groaned, and Lena shot her a sympathetic smile over Kara’s shoulder.

“Lucy saw it, too. She’s looking for you,” Lena told her, finally releasing Kara and stooping to pick up her phone from where she’d dropped it when Kara hugged her. “Said something about getting dinner?”

It sounded innocuous, but Kara guessed from the way colour was creeping up her sister’s cheeks that it probably wasn’t.

“That’s…Okay, I’ll find her later…Anyway.” Alex muttered, not meeting their eyes, and Kara and Lena shared an amused smile before Kara remembered why Lena Luthor was standing barefoot in her hotel room.

“Alex, who was that guy?” Kara asked, tugging Lena towards the couch but still too jittery to sit.

Alex ran a hand through her hair, looking frustrated. “He wouldn’t tell me his name, and he didn’t have ID,” she said, frowning. “I arrested him for drunk and disorderly, but the locals will probably just stick him in the tank for a few hours and let him out when he calms down. Less, if he’s got a decent lawyer he can call.”

“He does,” Lena said, and both sisters stared at her.

“You know him?” Kara asked, frowning.

Lena sank onto the couch. “His name is Todd Janson. He’s one of Lex’s fan boys,” she explained, rubbing a hand across her eyes. “He thinks Lex told him to protect me, whatever the hell that means. He follows me around to cons and premiers, pretty much any time I’m out in public.”

“And you just…let him?” Kara asked, aghast.

Lena shrugged. “My security team knows what he looks like, and most of the time it’s easier for them to just watch him so they know where he is,” she explained, sounding far too nonchalant for someone talking about her stalker. “They lost him today during the autograph session, hence the secret service act.”

“So you just let him follow you around everywhere?” Kara said, vacillating between concern and dismay. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Would it be trite to say I forgot?” Lena asked with a wry smile, but Kara just gaped at her.

“You forgot. About your _stalker_ ,” Kara said incredulously, glancing over at Alex, who was standing with her arms crossed and her expression schooled into careful neutrality.

Lena sighed. “Not forgot, exactly, it’s just…” She ran a hand through her hair, then reached out to tug Kara down next to her. “Lex was always protective of me, ever since we were kids. I was so used to having him looking over my shoulder that Todd just felt like an extension of that. It didn’t occur to me to mention it,” she said, and Kara realised that the dispassion in her tone wasn’t because she didn’t care, but because she was so hopelessly resigned to having her brother invade every facet of her life.

“Lena…”

“It’s fine, Kara,” she said, shaking her head. “I do owe you an apology, though. I should have known that question at the panel would wind him up. I should have warned you.”

“No, Lena, it’s not your fault,” Kara started, but stopped when Alex spoke up from the other side of the room.

“It gets better,” Alex told them, looking grim. “I was talking to hotel security, and apparently some idiot at the front desk has been letting people pay him to give out room numbers. He’s since been fired, but…”

“But he probably gave our friend my room number. Probably Kara’s, too,” Lena finished for her, running a hand through her hair again. “You have to change rooms.”

Kara shook her head. “I have Alex, I’ll be fine. You’re by yourself, y _ou_ have to change rooms.”

Lena opened her mouth to argue, but Alex held up a hand to forestall it.

“Neither of you are staying in your rooms,” she said, glancing between them. “Get your stuff together and come with me.”

**…**

The hotel manager was a harried-looking woman in her forties who was going out of her was to be helpful, partly, Kara thought, because she felt responsible for her former employee’s actions, but mostly because Alex had intimidated her way through several underlings in order to speak to her. The woman, Janice, had been thoroughly apprised of the situation by the very annoyed detective, and as a result, was almost falling over herself to be helpful, though she was respectfully hesitant.

“I’m not sure if we have any other rooms that would be suitable,” she told Alex, looking apologetic and slightly intimidated. “We can’t guarantee their privacy if we put them on the public floors, and most of the private floors are booked out, what with the convention being in town.” She ran a finger down her screen, and stopped on one entry. “There is one room available, but I’m afraid it’s a one-bed suite.”

“That’ll do,” Alex said, earning herself a surprised look from the two actors behind her.

“Alex—”

“Detective—”

Alex rounded on both of them. “It’s for one night. You two are friends, you’ll survive.” She turned back to Janice. “They’ll take it.”

After extracting two new key cards and a very earnest promise not to mention anything about the new sleeping arrangements from the manager, Alex led Kara and Lena up to their new room.

“Okay, I have to go and let Lucy yell at me,” she told them once they reached the door. “Call me if anything happens or you see our friend again, okay?” She pulled Kara into a quick hug, nodded to Lena, then disappeared down the hallway.

The room was about the same size as the one Kara had shared with Alex, but there was only one king-sized bed instead of two doubles. As she looked around, Kara caught Lena eyeing the couch, but shook her head as she opened her mouth to offer.

“You’re not sleeping on the couch,” Kara told her. “The bed is massive, and I’ve slept in your trailer before. This isn’t different.”

“I don’t know if passing out after shooting for fourteen hours straight counts as ‘sleeping’,” Lena pointed out, but Kara crossed her arms stubbornly and Lena sighed. “If you’re sure…”

“I am. Now c’mon, it’s late and we have an early morning.”

They took turns changing in the bathroom, and by the time Lena emerged Kara was settled into the large bed, scrolling aimlessly through her twitter feed.

“Anything interesting?” Lena asked as she joined her.

Kara shook her head. “Not really, just people going crazy over the promo. What’s a ‘Sizzle’?”

“Aside from the obvious, I have no idea,” Lena said, looking at her quizzically. “Why?”

“The fans keep talking about it. Doesn’t matter, I guess.” Kara shrugged, then leaned over to plug her phone into the charger beside her bed. “Can I…?” she asked Lena, gesturing towards the light switch, then flicking it off when her friend nodded.

There was a small crack in the curtains, letting a sliver of moonlight in to stream across the floor, but it still took a couple of minutes for Kara’s eyes to adjust to the darkness. When she could see again she glanced over and caught Lena watching her, her eyes almost colourless in the pale light. Her hair was loose and curling around her face, and Kara had to stop herself from reaching out to run a strand through her fingers.

“Are you enjoying the con?” Lena asked finally, her voice soft, as if she was reluctant to break the silence.

Kara smiled. “Yeah, it’s been fun. It’s different to the _Supergirl_ ones I went to.”

“How so?”

“It’s less…structured here. Most of the ones I did for _Supergirl_ were closer to press events than cons. We didn’t get much time with the fans.”

“That doesn’t surprise me. Lex always was very concerned with controlling his brand,” Lena said, rolling onto her back to stare up at the ceiling.

“Do you…Did he really send that guy to watch you?” Kara asked hesitantly, and Lena let out a long breath.

“I don’t know. I hope not, but…” She sighed again. “Lex wasn’t very stable towards the end. He did a number of things that don’t really make sense. It’s not impossible that he thought he was protecting me.”

“What does Mike think of it?” Kara asked, surprised by the surge of bitterness she had to force out of her tone. “Isn’t he worried your stalker might take offence at you dating someone else?”

“Oh, Todd thoroughly approves of our relationship,” Lena said dryly. “He told me so the last time he managed to get close enough to speak to me.”

“Well now we know he’s crazy…” Kara muttered, smiling when Lena laughed softly. “But Mike doesn’t care? That you’ve got a creepy obsessive fan following you around?”

“Not that he’s mentioned.” Lena said, shrugging but keeping her gaze on the ceiling. “But most of his obsessive fans are women, and he actively encourages them to follow him around. He doesn’t think it’s a big deal.”

“Am I the only one who thinks this is a bad thing?” Kara asked, only half joking, and Lena sighed.

“It’s fine, Kara. Honestly.”

“It’s not fine!” Kara insisted, her heart aching at the resignation in Lena’s tone. “You shouldn’t have to put up with a crazy person following you around because he thinks…” she trailed off, stuck by a sudden bolt of insight. “Lena, do you think he’s your punishment? For Lex?”

The silence from the other side of the bed was an answer in itself.

“Lena, no,” Kara said, reaching over to cup her friend’s cheek and tilt her head so she’d meet her gaze. “You don’t deserve to be punished for what your brother did.”

Lena shook her head. “It’s not just that. My mother—”

Kara cut her off. “I don’t care if every one of your relatives is a genocidal maniac, Lena. You are not your family. You are the kindest, most generous person I know, and the fact that you don’t believe that makes me so sad.”

Lena was looking at her, her eyes wide and shining in the moonlight filtering through the curtains. She brought her hand up to cover Kara’s where it rested on her cheek, and squeezed it for a moment before lifting it gently away.

“It’s late, Kara,” she said, her voice quiet and catching in her throat. “Can we please just go to sleep?”

Kara sighed as Lena rolled so her back was to Kara. “You are so much more than your name, Lena Luthor. I wish you could see that,” Kara said softly, shifting onto her back when Lena didn’t respond, uncomfortably aware of how her heart was aching under her ribs with every beat.

**…**

The shrill beeping of her alarm woke Kara the next morning, and she groaned and buried her head in her pillow before rolling over and fumbling for her phone to shut it off. Her stomach flipped weirdly when she realised she’d been wrapped around Lena in her sleep, but her friend hadn’t moved when she rolled away, though Kara could tell from her breathing that she was awake.

“G’morning,” Kara murmured, and Lena stirred, shifting onto her side face her.

“Morning,” Lena said, smiling when Kara buried her head back into the pillow.

“Do we have to get up? We could just stay here. The fans won’t miss us.”

“They’ll definitely miss us,” Lena said, but Kara could her the smile in her voice. “And Cat will kill us both.”

Kara groaned again, but pushed herself up off the mattress and stretched languidly. “Do you mind if I shower first?” she asked, and Lena shook her head wordlessly.

They danced around each other as they got ready, but Lena didn’t mention their conversation the previous night, apparently content to leave it in the cocoon of a dark hotel room, and Kara followed her lead. They made their way downstairs together, where the rest of the cast were gathering in the hotel restaurant for breakfast as part of Cat’s campaign to convince the masses that they weren’t actively trying to kill each other, despite what _StarFeed_ was reporting.

They had all heard about the altercation the day before, and were all quick to make sure Kara was okay. Even Mike looked vaguely concerned, which was nice, though he and Demos were quickly distracted by trying to convince Alex to teach them the throw she’d used. Mike and Lena were back to playing happy-couple in the somewhat public setting, but for some reason Kara found herself more irritated by the charade than she normally was, and she spent most of the meal resolutely ignoring that part of the table.

After breakfast, Kara had a solo photo op session that ran into the afternoon. Most of the fans had seen the circulating video, and many asked her if she was okay, which was touching. Because her character on the show hadn’t had much screen time beyond the promo trailers, most of the fans asked for simple poses, usually hugs, but more than a few wanted her in her Supergirl pose, which Kara enjoyed.

The photo op was Kara’s last official con event, unlike the rest of the cast, who were scheduled right up until they had to leave. Alex had also disappeared, saying that she had some errands to run but refusing to elaborate when Kara asked, which left Kara with the rest of the afternoon to herself. She ducked back to her room to change and tied her hair up, donning her oversized sunglasses and venturing out to roam the rest of the convention. She hadn’t had much of a chance to look around before, and seeing the sheer number of people there was surprising. She spent a couple of hours wandering before retreating to the no-fans bar, where she ran into a couple of other ex-LuthorFilm actors she hadn’t seen since the studio crashed. The afternoon bled into the evening, and eventually Alex reappeared to drag her back to her room to get her stuff together and head to the airport.

**…**

They were on the same plane for the flight back to National City, and when they boarded Kara quickly claimed both the couch and the remote for the tv across from it. “I sat through _The Bourne Identity_ on the way here,” she told Mike and Demos, who were looking at her with dismayed expressions. “I get to choose the movie this time.”

“Fine,” Mike said, pouting, while Demos just shrugged and went to raid the wet bar in the galley as Lena sank down next to Kara and curled her legs underneath herself.

Kara scrolled through the list of movies slowly, but her eyes widened as she spotted one of the options. She tried to flick past it quickly, but Lena’s eyes lit up mischievously as she leaned over and plucked the remote from her hand before she could.

“Don’t you dare,” Kara said, turning to her and trying to snag it back, but Lena was laughing as she held it away and selected the highlighted movie. “Lena, I swear…”

“But I love this film,” Lena said, trying and failing to look innocent as Kara climbed over her lap in an effort to retrieve the remote while the opening score of _Supergirl 2: Girl of Steel_ reverberated through the cabin.

“Lenaaaa,” Kara whined, but she was grinning as she tried to pin down her co-star, who was laughing as she twisted underneath her, keeping the remote out of reach. Kara ended up straddling her lap, holding her wrist in one hand and prying Lena’s fingers off it with the other as they both laughed breathlessly. Just as Kara got the device free and held it aloft in victory, Lucy snuck up behind her and tugged it from her grasp, darting away as Kara twisted to shoot her betrayed-puppy eyes.

“Fine, we’ll watch my stupid movie,” Kara said, crossing her arms and trying to pout through a smile, only realising she was still sitting on Lena’s lap when she noticed her friend had gone still beneath her. “Crap, sorry, I’m squishing you.” She shifted off her and dropped down onto the couch, stretching herself out over the section Lena wasn’t occupying and blinking in surprise when she glanced out the window to see they’d taken off without either of them noticing.

“What are we watching?” Alex asked, emerging from the galley with a glass in her hand. She raised an eyebrow when her sister’s face flashed across the screen. “ _Supergirl?_ You never let us watch your movies.”

“Lena made me,” Kara said, trying to sulk with a straight face. “She’s being mean.”

“Well, I _am_ a Luthor,” Lena said, her eyes sparkling with amusement.

Alex rolled her eyes at both of them, then nudged Kara with her foot. “Budge up, Supergirl. Share the couch.”

Kara grumbled, but wriggled up until her head was in Lena’s lap. “Do you mind?” she asked, glancing up at her in time to see something flash across Lena’s expression, but it was gone too quickly for Kara to identify it.

“No, this is fine,” Lena said, brushing the hair off Kara’s face as Alex nudged her legs again.

Kara glanced at her and grumbled some more, but she lifted her legs and let Alex sit down. Her sister tugged Lucy down with her, and once the two of them were settled Kara promptly dropped her legs again, laying them across their laps and earning herself a swat on the knee.

“Nope, not moving,” Kara told them, just barely resisting the urge to poke her tongue out. “If you’re making me watch this movie, I’m gonna be comfortable. Now hush, this is a good part.”

Kara lasted until just over half way through the movie before the exhaustion caught up with her. Lena had started carding her fingers through her hair at some point, and the gentle sensation, coupled with the barely-there vibration from the engines and the rhythmic cadence of Lena’s breathing above her soon lulled her to sleep.

She found out later that she hadn’t been the only one. When she got home, tired but unable to sleep, she opened her Instagram to find a picture uploaded on the _Dusklight_ BTS account. _‘Post con crash!’_ read the caption, and it had a surprising number of likes considering it was only a couple of hours old, but Kara could see why.

It was a beautiful picture, a candid of the four of them on the couch, and the combination of the dimmed cabin lights and the reflected light from the television made them look almost ethereal. Kara was laying on her side, stretched across the other three with her head in Lena’s lap and her legs resting across Alex and Lucy, and she was clearly asleep. One of her hands was wrapped loosely around Alex’s where it rested on her hip and the other one was curled on Lena’s knee. Alex’s eyes were open, but she was staring off to the side with the thousand-yard-stare thing that Kara knew she did when she was fighting to stay awake. Lucy was also asleep, with her head on Alex’s shoulder and her hands resting on Kara’s legs. Lena’s head was tilted forward, hiding her face from the camera, but her posture was slouched enough that Kara could tell she was either asleep or very close to it. One of her hands was still tangled in Kara hair, and the other one was curled down Kara’s body to rest on her stomach.

The comments on it were a combination of people cooing over how adorable they were and those screaming that it was fake, or staged, or a PR stunt, but Kara knew there was nothing orchestrated about that photo. She wasn’t sure who’d taken it, because the only person she remembered sitting at the correct angle for it was Cat, and she didn’t think her showrunner cared enough to have access to the show’s social media accounts.

She blinked an shook herself when she realised she’d been staring at the picture for almost five minutes with an odd tingle of heat running up and down her spine. Feeling suddenly antsy, she stabbed the like button then tossed her phone onto the bed, standing and heading for the easel set up in the corner of the room, determined to paint until her eyes grew heavy and the weird feeling in her chest disappeared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> poor oblivious Kara. she'll get there soon, i promise.
> 
> also holy crappp this chapter had so much dialogue and an action scene, which are two things i suck at writing so blehhh =p sorry if it's terrible
> 
> and yes, i called it sizzle. _**S**_ ara/ _ **Is**_ abel _ **le**_. geddit? shoosh, it's hilarious and i laughed when i thought of it so it's sticking


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i seriously love you guyssss, your comments and stuff make my day. i do a little dance in my head every time i get a notification on my phone (sometime i do a dance irl, but i'm usually at work and i get looks) 
> 
> i'm so glad y'all liked sizzle =]
> 
> so this chapter has bits i'm really proud of and bits i'm less happy with, but it's finished and it's long so we're going with it. hooray!
> 
> also, angst.

Dusklight _Creator Teases Romance in Upcoming Season!_

_After_ Dusklight’s _explosive (literally!) season finale, we sat down with showrunner Cat Grant to pick her brains about what made the show such a hit, and what we can expect going into season 3._

_“We tell stories that people can relate to,” Cat tells us. “We’ve got these character with all this power and responsibility, but ultimately they’re still human, they make human mistakes, and I think people want more of that.”_

_A big part of the show’s appeal is the relationships between the characters. Season 2 especially has seen an explosion in ‘shipping’ within the extensive fanbase, with the introduction of Detective Sara Harper [exquisitely portrayed by_ Supergirl _alum Kara Danvers] potentially throwing a wrench in the popular pairing between Jaxon Price and Isabelle Lewis [played by Mike Matthews and Lena Luthor]. Dubbed ‘Jaxabelle’ by the fans, the pairing was a big draw for the first season, but the introduction of Danvers’ character has moved many fans firmly into the ‘Jara’ [Jax/Sara] camp._

_Perhaps more unexpected, however, is the small (but rapidly growing) section of the fanbase pushing for romance between Sara and Isabelle. The pairing (cleverly dubbed ‘Sizzle’ by fans) gained traction after the release of the first teaser for the second half of the season, and has attracted a small but dedicated following, no doubt inspired by the obvious chemistry between the two actresses._

_When asked about any plans for romance going into season 3, however, Cat plays coy._

_“We have plans,” the writer promises with a smile. “I can’t say more than that. You’ll just have to watch and see!”_

_You can read the full interview, as well as our spoiler masterlist here. _Dusklight _returns September 24 th on NCB._

**…**

The summer hiatus went quickly, though Kara missed the rest of the cast terribly. Lena and Mike flew to Europe for a month, doing cons in Paris and London before travelling to a ridiculous number of countries to promote the show, and Kara only realised how much time she’d been spending with Lena when she was limited to messages and short skype calls. Kara did one other con with Lucy and Demos in Opal City, and Cat and James co-ordinated to keep up a steady stream of talk-show appearances for her, but it just wasn’t the same without Lena. James found her a couple of small projects to work on, indie films that weren’t going to win any awards, but that Kara enjoyed working on to pass the time and distract herself from her friend’s absence.

 _Dusklight_ aired the rest of the second season to great acclaim. Kara’s character was well received, both by the fans and the critics, and she found herself suddenly in possession of a massively expanded, boundlessly enthusiastic fan base, to her delight. They were passionate and expressive, and Kara spend a fair bit of her free time just lurking in her own mentions on twitter, smiling at some of the things they sent her.

With the fans, of course, came the shipping. Kara had never had much exposure to the phenomenon before now, and Lucy eventually took pity on her and gave her a crash course in the complicated web of connections. The two main pairings involving her character were Jara, which she’d expected, and Sizzle, which she hadn’t.

“Does it bother you?” Lucy asked her, raising her hands when Kara shot her a disbelieving look. “Just checking! You never know, some people react weirdly to it.”

“No, it’s fine.” Kara said, mostly truthfully. The thought of people wanting her and Lena together made her stomach flip weirdly, but the fans were talking about their characters. It was different.

“Good. You’re all set then. Just remember, block the trolls, and stay off tumblr,” Lucy warned, and Kara decided she’d ask Lena what a tumblr was later.

Lena flew back into the country the week before they started production on season three. Kara met her at the airport, fidgeting impatiently at the arrivals gate as people trickled out slowly. It was late in the evening, so she’d forgone her usual disguise in favour of simply dressing in sweatpants and an oversized hoodie and hoping nobody looked close enough to recognise her. A couple of people glanced at her curiously, but nobody approached her, leaving Kara to bounce anxiously from foot to foot as she waited.

Finally Lena emerged, looking tired and travel-worn. She was wearing an NCU hoodie with the hood pulled up and had her head down, but Kara recognised her instantly. Kara hadn’t told her friend she was coming, and there was a momentary flash of irritation on Lena’s face when Kara stepped into her path, but it melted instantly into surprised delight when she recognised her.

“Surprise!” Kara said, grinning as Lena all but fell into her open arms. She hugged her friend tightly, swaying slightly were they stood as Lena melted against her. “I missed you.”

“I missed you, too,” Lena murmured in her ear, squeezing her tightly before releasing her and stepping back to regather her luggage. Kara linked their arms as they headed for the exit, babbling happily about what she’d done in Lena’s absence as Lena smiled at her with fondness in her eyes.

**…**

Returning to set felt like going home. The hiatus had been fun, but Kara had missed the frantic pace of shooting, the thrill of telling the stories that Cat and her writers had crafted so cleverly. The new season was amazing, with call backs and little details that revealed just how complex the planning of the whole story was. Cat was pulling on plot threads that she’d set up as far back as season one, and Kara marvelled at the perfect intricacy of the world she’d built.

The significance of the necklace she’d insisted Kara wear was revealed in episode two, when the same symbol was linked to a shadowy organisation headed by a mysterious figure with the same powers as Jax called Spider, who’d been hinted at in previous seasons but so far remained unseen. The third episode was a road-trip story, forcing Kara to spend most of the week in a car with Lena and Mike as their characters worked out their lingering issues from last season. It led to a touching forgiveness scene between the three of them, and Kara privately thought that it had almost been worth being stuck in a box with Mike.

Mike was easier to work with since his return from overseas. Kara had an inkling that something had happened when he and Lena were in Europe, because while neither of them would talk about it, he did tone down a lot of his previous, jerk-like behaviour, to the point where filming with him was almost fun again. Kara still hated watching them do their couple act, but they often forgot to do it when they were filming, and Kara was getting better at avoiding them at the events they had to attend together.

When not filming, Kara spent more time in Lena’s trailer than her own, to the point where Lucy changed the passcode on Kara’s door as a joke and it took her three days to notice. Alex and Lucy both found it hilarious, and the resulting prank war quickly escalated, much to the delight of the fans who followed them on Instagram.

The first half of the season flew by, and before Kara knew it, there were only two episodes left before the mid-year hiatus. The script for the second-last episode before the break called for Sara and Isabelle to argue, first about procedure but quickly moving to the apparent undertone of jealousy between them that Cat had been sprinkling through previous episodes. The scene ended with Isabelle banishing Sara from the morgue, leaving them both hurt and angry at each other, but even acting furious with Lena was hard, and it took Kara several takes to summon a level of heat that the director was happy with.

Kara’s time on set eventually burred into a haze of long days and good times, and she found that she was happier than she’d been since losing her job on _Supergirl_. But Kara occasionally failed to learn from her mistakes, and tempted fate once again by mentioning it to Lena one night, after an Expanded Sister Night at her apartment.

Kara was laying on the couch with her head in Lena’s lap. Alex and Lucy had left a little while ago, but Kara was content, full and not-quite-drunk and unwilling to move, and Lena didn’t seem inclined to make her. She was running her fingers absent-mindedly through Kara’s hair as she watched the random cooking show they’d landed on after the movie had finished. Kara had started watching it, but her gaze had slowly wandered until she caught herself staring at her friend’s face above her. The light from the television made her skin look paler and her hair look darker, and her eyes were an almost translucent grey, and Kara was stuck by how glad she was that this amazing woman was her friend. Her eyes traced the gentle curve of her lips, and Kara found herself speaking softly, not quite breaking the peaceful stillness.

“Lena?”

“Mmm?” she replied, keeping her gaze on the tv where one of the chefs was mutilating a steak beyond all recognition.

“I’m really happy.” Lena dropped her eyes down to her at that, and she smiled fondly at Kara as she brushed a stray lock of hair from her face.

“I’m glad,” she murmured, her eyes crinkling as she scratched her nails gently over Kara’s scalp.

“Are you happy?” Kara asked, and something changed in Lena’s face. _‘Her smile is wrong_ ,’ Kara thought, and reached a hand up towards it, but Lena caught her fingers with her free hand before she got there.

“I’m happy, Kara,” she said softly, guiding her hand back down onto her stomach, but her smile wasn’t crinkling her eyes anymore, and there was something in her expression that made Kara’s heart ache.

She wanted to reach out, to run her fingers down her jaw until the ache went away, but before she could do anything, Lena’s phone chimed from where it was resting on the arm of the couch.

Lena untangled her hand from Kara’s hair to check it, frowning down at the device as she opened the message. “Cat wants us in the writers’ room after filming tomorrow.”

“Sounds ominous,” Kara said, but the moment was broken and her eyes were heavy, and when Lena’s hand resumed its place in her hair, Kara found herself drifting off to sleep.

**…**

They didn’t often do full table reads, but Cat had been withholding the script for the mid-season finale, saying she wanted them to do a cold read when they were all in the same room. The cast, two of Cat’s writers, and Snapper, who was directing, all gathered in the writers’ room that evening after filming had wrapped for the day. Kara sat with Lena on one side and Mike on the other as the cast chatted while they waited for their showrunner to arrive.

“This is all very cloak-and-dagger,” Kara muttered to Lena. “Has she done this before?”

Lena nodded, rolling her eyes. “Cat has a flair for the dramatic that she indulges occasionally. She did this in season one, when Demos and Vasquez’s characters finally got together.” She glanced side-long at Kara, grinning in a way that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Maybe she’s finally resolving the love triangle she’s been teasing. I guess there’s romance in the future for one of us.”

Her tone was light, but it was artificially so, and there was an undercurrent to it that made something twist in Kara’s stomach. She didn’t get a chance to ask about it though, because Cat chose that moment to make her dramatic entrance, sweeping into the room trailed by her assistant, who was carrying an armful of pages. The showrunner quickly called the room to order as her assistant passed out the scripts, but she offered no explanation for her reticence, merely waited until they were ready before she began to read.

The episode was a good one, teasing out threads from previous plotlines and bringing back Spider, Jax’s recurring but as-yet-unseen nemesis. It had some good character beats, too, playing up the tension between Sara and Isabelle after their fight last episode, and Kara amused herself by pulling faces at Lena as they read angry dialogue to each other.

Towards the end of the script there was a scene in which the two henchmen of Spider’s that Sara and Jax were following spotted them, and a fight ensued. It was short and vicious and left the two bad guys unconscious, but during the scuffle Sara caught a shotgun blast to the abdomen that left her bleeding on the ground, and Kara was more than a little worried that Cat had brought them all together to tell them that she was getting killed off.

“Am I getting fired?” she asked, only half joking, and a ripple of laughter ran around the room. Cat didn’t answer beyond a small smile that did nothing to ease Kara’s worry and a gesture for her to continue reading. One of the junior writers on the other side of the table didn’t have as good a poker-face as Cat, and grinned like a lunatic with a secret until his counterpart elbowed him sharply and he dropped his eyes back to the script.

The next scene ran on from the last one, with Jax half-dragging half-carrying a wounded Sara into the morgue, yelling for Isabelle.

_“What happened?” Isabelle demands, hurrying over to take Sara’s other arm, heedless of the blood soaking into her shirt._

_“We were following some of Spider’s men and they made us,” Jax explains as Sara sags between them. “I can’t take her to the hospital, they’ll be watching.”_

_Isabelle’s eyes flash as she glares at him. “I told you not to get her involved! You can heal yourself, she can’t!”_

_Jax glares back at her, anger and guilt warring on his face. “She made her own choices, and blaming me won’t help her.”_

_Sara interrupts the incipient argument, raising her head and slurring, “Not the dead people table, Iz, please don’t put me on the dead people table.”_

_“I have to, darling, there’s nowhere else.” Then, to Jax, “Help me lift her.”_

_Together they gently lift Sara onto the table, and Isabelle strips off her jacket and rolls it into a pillow, sliding it under Sara’s head before pointing towards her office._

_“My medical kit is in there, go get it,” she tells Jax, and he hurries off as Isabelle eases Sara’s shirt away from the wound, wincing in sympathy as her friend flinches and cries out. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”_

_“I’m on the dead people table. Am I gonna die?” Sara asks, pain and blood loss making her words run together, and Isabelle looks up from her examination of the bloody mess on her stomach._

_“No, of course not,” she says, smoothing the hair from Sara’s face with a shaking hand. “You’re gonna be fine, darling.”_

_“Oh. Good. I wouldn’t want you to think I’m only doing this ‘coz I’m dying,” Sara says, reaching up to cup Isabelle’s cheek and pulling her down and—_

Kissing her.

 _“What!?”_ The exclamation came in stereo from either side of Kara, but she was still staring down at the script in front of her, re-reading the stage direction, sure she’d got it wrong. Mike and Lena were both not-quite-yelling at Cat, but their words were running together into a jumble of outrage while on the other side of the table, the rest of the cast sat in stunned silence.

“You said—”

“I’m not—”

“—you can’t do this—”

“—won’t like it—”

 _“I told you to cast her for_ me _!”_ Mike finally yelled, slamming his hand onto the table as he stood, and Lena fell silent as everyone stared at him. He seemed to realise he’d gone too far when Cat’s eyes flattened as she glared at him, and the anger on his face morphed into something closer to embarrassment.

“You. Sit down, shut up, and look pretty, if you can manage three things at once,” Cat said shortly. “This only peripherally concerns you.” Mike sat, looking chagrined, and Cat moved her gaze to Lena with narrowed eyes. “You cannot complain. You’ve been nattering at me to add ‘representation’ for ages.”

“I thought…Lucy…” Lena stuttered, eyes darting to the other side of the table then back. Kara had gone from staring dumbstruck at the script to staring dumbstruck at her showrunner, but the tiny part of her brain that wasn’t in meltdown mode couldn’t help but notice that Lena wouldn’t look at her.

“A token gay regular? No. You will be the only non-straight lead of a prime time drama on any network. That is what progress looks like.” Cat glared between the three of them. “This was always the plan. _I_ never said whose love interest I was casting, and no one ever bothered to ask. The network has signed off on this, and I will drag this show into the twenty-first century, kicking and screaming if need be. If you have any genuine concerns about it, I’ll hear them, but this _is_ happening.”

“But…The chemistry read…” Kara said, still reeling. “Why have me read with Mike if you were setting this up?”

“I wanted them both there, but _someone_ ,” she pinned Lena with a level stare, “was busy that day.” Cat glanced at the other side of the table, where the others were starting to shift restlessly. “We can talk about this later. Keep reading.”

The rest of the read was subdued. There was only one scene after the morgue, featuring the first actual appearance of Spider, revealing to the audience for the first time that Jax’s nemesis was a woman. Veronica Sinclair, the actress they’d cast for the part, wasn’t there, so Lena read her lines, but it was clear her attention was elsewhere. When Cat finally dismissed them, Lena was on her feet and heading for the door almost before the showrunner had finished speaking.

“Lena, wait,” Kara called after her, hearing a low muttering behind her as she rose to chase after her friend.

She caught up to her halfway down a random corridor that didn’t really go anywhere and reached out to tug her to a stop.

“Lena, stop. Hey.” She tried to urge Lena around to face her, but Lena wouldn’t turn, instead tilting sideways to lean against the wall with one arm wrapped around her stomach. Kara could feel her shaking under her hand, and the wetness on her cheeks shone under the fluorescent light. She wasn’t sure where Lena had been heading, and looking at her now, she suspected that Lena hadn’t known either.

“Kara,” she murmured, obviously trying to slow her erratic breathing. “I’m sorry…I can’t…”

“Hey, it’s okay,” Kara said, wrapping her arms around Lena’s waist from the side, concerned by the fact that, while Lena didn’t resist the embrace, she didn’t relax into it the way she usually did either.

“I can’t do this, Kara. I _can’t,_ ” she whispered, and Kara felt her heart twist in her chest. She knew Lena put a lot of herself into Isabelle, and this might be edging too close to coming out for Lena to handle.

“It’ll be okay, we can talk to Cat…” Kara started, but Lena shook her head, making her hair brush across Kara’s cheek.

“No, I have to do this,” Lena said, sounding torn. “I… I have to give them _something_ but I can’t…With you, I can’t...”

“Hey, at least it’s with me and not Mike. That’s better, right?” Kara joked, but Lena went still in her arms. “Right?”

“ _Kara_ ,” she breathed in a fractured whisper, sounding like her name physically hurt to say, and Kara felt like she’d been punched in the stomach.

“Oh,” Kara said quietly, trying to keep the hurt from her tone as she realised that Lena’s main objection to the script might not be the coming-out thing, but the fact that it was Kara she was doing it with. “Is the thought of having to kiss me really that terrible?”

“ _Yes,_ ” Lena cried, the word tearing out of her throat like shattering glass, and Kara’s arms loosened from around her in surprise. Once she’d gotten past her initial surprise, Kara had found the prospect of kissing Lena distinctly _not_ -terrible, for reasons she wasn’t quite ready to poke at yet, but hearing that her friend felt differently made her heart clench painfully as Lena twisted out of her slackened grip.

“I can’t…I’m sorry, I _can’t_...” she said, backing away and fleeing back the way they’d come, and Kara let her go, staring after her with wet eyes and desperately fighting the sick feeling in her stomach.

**…**

Filming that week was miserable. It was as if Kara had been transported back to her first weeks on set, before Lena had even started to thaw around her, except at least then she’d had Mike. Now both the leads were actively avoiding her, though Mike did occasionally send her offended glances, like she’d deliberately set him up. Kara went to Cat on the second day and all but begged her to change the script, but the showrunner had remained resolute.

“This is a story we have to tell,” she told Kara, but there was a knowing glint in her eyes that hinted at deeper motives.

The rest of the cast were carefully not taking sides, but the crew, most of whom hadn’t seen the script, were gossiping wildly about the fact that Kara and Lena had gone from being attached at the hip to unable to make eye contact. The popular theories were all way off base, and Kara found the usually amusing speculation deeply annoying in this case.

“I just don’t know what’s going on,” Kara complained to Alex the night before they were scheduled to shoot the scene as she sat, curled on her sister’s couch with a pint on ice-cream on her lap. She hadn’t actually eaten any, just toyed with it, using her spoon to dig little tornadoes into the surface as she twisted it in ever tighter circles. “She won’t even look at me. It’s like when she thought I hated her, but I don’t know what I’ve done.”

“You haven’t done anything,” Alex said distractedly as her phone chimed from the coffee table next to them.

“Then why is she avoiding me?” Kara asked plaintively, frowning as Alex dropped her phone back onto the coffee table and dug moodily at her ice-cream. Her sister had been distracted and grumpy all night, and Kara guessed it was related to the reason Lucy had been unusually quiet on set earlier.

Alex’s phone chimed again, and she frowned as she read the message and typed out a short reply.

“You have grumpy thumbs on, what’s wrong?” Kara asked as Alex glared at her phone. “Is it worse than my thing?”

“What?” Alex looked up at her, distracted, then waved a hand. “Your thing’s easy. Lena’s in love with you but she’s convinced herself that she doesn’t deserve you because her family looks like a Bond Villains Anonymous meeting and she thinks you’ll never reciprocate,” she explained, glaring back down at her phone and oblivious to the way Kara was staring at her with wide eyes, her mouth opening and closing soundlessly. “My thing is that Lucy is being a stubborn, infuriating pain in the—what?” she asked, finally looking up to notice her sister’s poleaxed expression.

It took several seconds for Kara to force words up through her throat. “Lena doesn’t…She’s not…”

Alex smiled sadly at her, leaning over to rescue her ice-cream before it slipped from her slackened grip. “Kara, I love you, but there is a reason I am a cop and you are an actress. Trust me, Captain Oblivious, Lena’s been completely gone on you for months, but now Cat’s making her kiss you on national television and she doesn’t know how to cope with that so she’s pushing you away.”

Kara shook her head, trying to find the words to refute Alex’s claims, but they wouldn’t come.

Alex’s phone chimed again, and she typed out a short reply before tossing it onto the arm chair on the other side of the coffee table and standing, heading towards the kitchen. “This conversation calls for something stronger than ice-cream,” she said, returning with a bottle of scotch and two glasses.

Even with the addition of alcohol, Kara remained unconvinced, and eventually Alex gave up and just tugged her to bed, resolutely ignoring her phone, which had been chiming every few minutes since she’d put it down.

**…**

Kara slept badly, tossing and turning all night, and she showed up to set the next morning tired and antsy. She fidgeted the whole time she was getting her make-up done, a process which took far longer than usual because they also had to apply the prosthetics to her stomach and hip to simulate her wound and set up the system of pouches that would make it seem like it was bleeding. The costuming assistant was there too, and he was already grumpy because the clothes Kara was wearing were almost certainly going to be unusable after this. His mood was not improved by having to dress a restless actor who wouldn’t stand still, but Kara was too wound up to placate him.

Eventually Kara made her way to the morgue soundstage, trying not to drip fake blood on anyone. Because her prep had taken so long, Mike and Lena were already on set, and they’d already gone through the blocking and rehearsal of the scene. Snapper ran Kara through it quickly, but her part in the scene mostly involved hanging off the others and looking injured, so it didn’t take long. He largely glossed over the kiss at the end of the scene, implying that he assumed Kara and Lena had worked it out between themselves. They hadn’t, and Kara knew that they would have to rely heavily on the chemistry of a friendship that she wasn’t certain still existed to get the scene to work. Lena had only looked at her once the whole time she’d been there, and her eyes had just flicked from Kara’s face to the blood on her shirt and back before she turned to talk to one of the assistant directors.

The effects team did one last pass, coating her liberally in the stage blood and smearing some on Mike for good measure, then they started filming.

“Isabelle! Isabelle!” Mike yelled, supporting most of Kara’s weight as they staggered together through the flaps hanging over the entrance to the morgue, leaving bloody streaks on the cloudy plastic. Lena emerged from her office, and if Kara hadn’t known better, she would have said that the fear that flashed across her face was real.

“What happened?” Lena demanded, hurrying over to slide herself under Kara’s other arm. It was the closest they’d come to a hug since the day they’d got the script, and Kara couldn’t stop herself from letting her head loll onto Lena’s shoulder as they dragged her across the room. They did a few takes of their entrance, and Kara repeated the motion every time, murmuring her line into Lena’s ear and feeling her grip tighten in response.

The lift onto the table took several takes before Snapper was happy with it. Mike actually dropped her in one of them, and she fell against Lena as they stumbled together back against the table. They both laughed it off as Mike apologised, because the moment was definitely going to end up on the blooper reel, but inside Kara felt like crying because Lena’s hands were around her waist and all she could think about was how much she missed her friend.

Finally, it was time, and Kara lay on the uncomfortable morgue slab with a jacket under her head that smelled like Lena as Mike hurried towards Isabelle’s office. There was a flutter down near her stomach that was only partly because Lena was moving her shirt, and Kara didn’t have to work to say her lines with pain in her voice.

“I’m on the dead people table. Am I gonna die?” Kara slurred, and then there was a gentle hand in her hair and Lena’s face hovering above her. Lena, who hadn’t spoken to her in a week, whose eyes were filled with fear that wasn’t entirely fake, whose skin was so impossibly soft under Kara’s fingers as she cupped her cheek. Kara just barely remembered to say her last line, and then she tugged Lena down towards her.

There was no explosion of stars when their lips met, no fireworks or earth-shattering kaboom. It was so much simpler. Something just _clicked_ in Kara’s heart, and suddenly everything made sense, like her entire world had shifted ever so slightly on its axis. She wondered how she’d never noticed, even after Alex had pointed it out to her, that the fluttering in her stomach was attraction, that the burning tingle in her spine was longing, that the twisting, clawing thing in her gut was jealousy. That the warmth in her chest every time Lena smiled at her was love.

“ _Oh,_ ” Kara sighed, lost in her own realisation and the feeling of Lena melting against her.

“Kara,” Lena whispered brokenly against her lips, too softly for their microphones to pick up, and Kara felt herself fall as the final pieces slotted into place. Lena was in love with her, and it was almost certainly mutual, and Kara had no idea how it had taken her so long to notice.

Lena’s hand was still down on her stomach, ostensibly putting pressure on Sara’s wound even though it was well out of shot, but it crept slowly upward as the kiss went on, slipping off the mess of prosthetics and onto Kara’s skin as Kara slid her hand from Lena’s cheek into her hair, tilting her head to deepen the kiss. There was wetness on Kara’s cheek that meant at least one of them was crying, and she could feel Lena trembling in every place they were touching. Lena whimpered softly as Kara’s tongue darted out to trace her lower lip, and Kara decided that she’d give up everything she owned if it meant they could stay like that forever.

“Cut!” Snapper yelled from behind them, and Lena straightened abruptly, tearing herself away from Kara and leaving her grasping at air.

“Lena,” she breathed as she pushed herself up into a sitting position, but Lena backed away from her, very nearly running into the camera behind her in her haste. Her eyes were wide, and her skin was pale under the streak of red along her jaw where Kara had first touched her.

“Nice take, ladies. We’re done here, go clean up,” Snapper said gruffly, and Lena turned and fled the set, leaving Kara staring after her, surrounded by people but unable to think beyond the revelation she’d just had.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm so sorry i'll fix it i swear pls don't leave meeeee


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you guysssss. the commentssss. the reviewssss. the loveeee. y'all are beautiful and amazing human people and i love you.
> 
> i was beating my head against the solid wall that was this chapter for like three days and then wrote most of it in a massive chunk in like five hours, which is not how i normally write things so sorry if it's terrible =p

_ Are Those Wedding Bells We Hear? _

_Love is in the air on the set of_ Dusklight _! Co-stars and rumoured sweethearts Mike Matthews and Lena Luthor are apparently tying the knot, according to a source close to the pair._

_“He proposed to her on Christmas Eve,” our source claims. “It was so romantic. Of course she said yes straight away.”_

_The happy news comes in spite of reports of a minor indiscretion on Matthews’ part with_ Dusklight _co-star Kara Danvers. According to set rumours, Danvers allegedly made a move on Matthews as part of her ongoing feud with Luthor, though all three have denied it._

StarFeed _has reached out to both Matthews and Luthor for confirmation of this momentous news, but neither have got back to us. We’ll keep you updated with information as it comes to light!_

**…**

The sound of someone clearing their throat next to Kara finally broke her out of her daze, and she blinked and turned to find Lucy standing next to her, smiling.

“What?” Kara asked dumbly, realising that her co-star had been talking and she had no idea what she’d said. Her mind was stuck on an endless loop of the last minute, and she was having trouble thinking beyond the feeling of Lena pressed against her.

“I said we should get you cleaned up. If you let that stuff dry in your hair it’s a bitch to get out,” she explained gently, offering a hand to help Kara off the table.

“Oh. Okay.” Kara’s brain was still rebooting, so she just took Lucy’s hand and slid off the table to stand on shaking legs, surprised to find that the world wasn’t actually shifting underneath her. She wanted to follow Lena, to chase her down and touch her and hold her and kiss her somewhere that wasn’t surrounded by people and cameras, but Lucy was tugging her off set and towards Hair and Make-up, and Kara wasn’t thinking clearly enough to do anything other than follow her.

Once they got to the relative privacy of the make-up trailer, Lucy helped her tug the ruined shirt off over her head and guided her toward the chairs. Kara made it most of the way there before she caught sight of herself in the mirror and froze, surprised by how ashen she looked under her stage make-up. There was a smear of red that stood out starkly against her pale skin, running up from her hip to her ribs, showing the path Lena’s hand had taken. Kara traced it reverently, feeling the sensation of Lena’s phantom fingers tracing their way up her body until Lucy tugged her hand away and pushed her down into a chair.

She rummaged briefly in a draw for a moment and came back with a bottle of something that smelled sharply of chemicals which she used to wet a rag before she settled in front of Kara and began wiping her face gently.

“Are you okay, Kara?” Lucy asked her eventually, breaking the long silence. She was on her second rag and had moved on to Kara’s hands while Kara sat, staring at herself in the mirror. “You haven’t actually said anything for about ten minutes, which I think is a record.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Kara asked in a cracked whisper, and Lucy looked up at her with compassion in her eyes.

“That she’s in love with you?” Lucy knowing didn’t surprise her. Lucy saw far more with her sharp, watchful eyes than people gave her credit for.

Kara shook her head and dropped her gaze. “No,” she said softly. “That I’m in love with her.”

Lucy huffed out a laugh. “I honestly thought you knew and you were both just being stubborn idiots. I didn’t think anyone could be _that_ oblivious,” she explained with a fond smile, and Kara blushed.

“What do I do?” Kara asked after another long pause, and Lucy leaned back to retrieve another rag.

“You help me get the rest of this crap off. You go take a shower. Then you go find your girl and tell her, ‘coz knowing Lena, she’s probably hiding somewhere convincing herself that you hate her.”

“I don’t,” Kara insisted, shaking her head. “I really, really don’t.”

Lucy laughed. “I know. Go tell her.”

Once they’d wiped off the worst of the fake blood and peeled off the prosthetics, Lucy produced a change of clothes for her then dragged a protesting Kara back to her trailer.

“Do you wanna have this conversation smelling of acetone? Shower first,” she said, pushing Kara into the small bathroom and closing the door behind her.

Kara had the world’s fastest shower, and re-emerged to find Lucy staring down at her phone with a frown. She looked up as Kara came closer and smiled.

“Much better. My spies say she hasn’t left the lot, so now we just need to find her,” Lucy said, but the pounding hot water had helped Kara’s brain finish its meltdown, and she now remembered where else she’d seen the frowning-down-at-her-phone pose recently.

“Why are you and Alex fighting?” she asked, and Lucy sighed.

“We’re not fighting, exactly. Your sister is just being obtuse,” she explained with a sort of exasperated fondness. “I’m going over there after this to talk to her.”

“You should go there now. I can find Lena on my own.”

Lucy frowned slightly. “Are you sure?” she asked, and Kara nodded, privately determined not to let another one of Alex’s relationships collapse because of her.

“Yeah. Go talk to Alex. I’ll be fine. Thank you.” She pulled Lucy into a tight hug, then pushed her towards the door.

**…**

The first place Kara checked was Lena’s trailer, though she was almost certain she wouldn’t be there. It had been nearly an hour since they’d filmed the scene, and Kara knew Lena would have found a better hiding spot by now. She still found herself fidgeting nervously as she punched in the code for her door with a shaking hand.

To Kara’s surprise, there was someone in the trailer, but it wasn’t the person she was looking for. Jess, Lena’s assistant, was bent over a pile of clothes on the floor, but she straightened and whipped around as the door opened.

“Where is she?” Kara asked, unable to keep the hint of desperation out of her tone, and Jess frowned in confusion.

“I don’t know,” Jess said, looking concerned. “She just sent me a message to come and pick up her clothes. Did something happen?”

“No, I just—I need to find her,” Kara said, backing towards the door.

“Are you okay?” Jess asked, concern painted across her face, and Kara nodded.

“I’m fine. Just….tell her I’m looking for her?” she asked softly. Jess nodded slowly, still looking worried, but Kara turned and fled the trailer before she could speak.

Kara checked several more places in quick succession, and came up empty on all of them. Lena, it seemed, was good at not being found. Kara was tired and frustrated and emotionally wrung out, and she was about to give up and just head home when Cat’s assistant came tottering after her in heels that were so high they were probably unsafe.

“Ms Danvers! Ms Danvers!” she called, and Kara sighed and turned around.

“Hey Eve,” she murmured, trying to keep the frustration out her tone, reminding herself that her mess of a love life wasn’t Eve’s fault. “What’s wrong?”

Eve stopped next to her and wobbled slightly before regaining her balance. “Ms Grant sent me to tell you ‘check the bar set’.”

Kara frowned. “Did she say anything else?” she asked, and Eve shook her head.

“Nope, just those exact words. ‘Check the bar set’.” The way she said it made it clear that Cat hadn’t given her any context, and it was obvious from her expression that she often got sent to deliver messages she didn’t understand. Lena had not been wrong about Cat’s flair for the dramatic.

“Okay, thanks,” Kara said, trying to decide if she was more worried about the fact that Cat knew she was looking for Lena or that she apparently kept such close track of her actors that she actually knew where to find her.

Eve smiled at her a tottered off, almost stumbling in her ridiculously high heels before she caught herself. Kara watched her for a moment before deciding that she had too much else going on to wonder about the new fashion choices of someone else’s assistant, and instead turned and headed towards the soundstages.

**…**

The bar was one of several standing sets they had in the studio, and Kara knew that when it wasn’t being used for filming, the crew often used it as a hangout spot. They were mostly careful to keep it clean and not damage it, so the higher ups tended to look the other way. It was usually dark and abandoned when they were filming elsewhere, but when Kara carefully pushed the door open she found someone had turned on the lamps above the bar, leaving the set bathed in a soft, dim light.

Lena sat at the bar, a bottle next to her elbow, cradling a tumbler of amber liquid and looking unfairly, almost inhumanly beautiful. Her hair was damp from a shower and hanging loose down her back, and her face – which Kara could see reflected in the mirror above the bar – was scrubbed free of make-up. Her eyes were closed, and the hand that wasn’t wrapped around the almost-full glass was tangled in her hair, propping up her head.

The sight of her stole Kara’s breath away, and she hovered near the door, opening and closing her mouth, at a loss for what to say. Her plan hadn’t gone beyond ‘find Lena and kiss her’, and she hadn’t thought to come up with the steps in between.

“Isn’t that just apple juice?” she found herself asking, then mentally kicked herself as Lena stiffened and opened her eyes but didn’t turn.

“Kara,” she sighed, her tone a sort of pained resignation that made Kara’s heart hurt. Their eyes met briefly in the mirror before Lena’s slid shut again. “If you’re here to tell me to stay the hell away from you, can you wait until I’ve finished this?” She raised the glass and took a long sip, and Kara found herself moving towards her slowly.

“That’s not why I’m here,” Kara said softly, stopping next to Lena and resting a hand on the bar.

Lena chuckled bitterly. “What then? Are you leaving the country? It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve elicited that reaction,” she said, old pain threading through her words, and Kara’s heart ached at the thought of whatever story was behind that comment. Lena looked lost and broken and unsure, and Kara realised that her first plan might be exactly what she needed.

Find Lena, check.

“I’m going to kiss you again,” Kara said simply, and Lena finally turned to look at her, mouth open in surprise and eyes wide with hope. “You have three seconds to stop me.”

Lena didn’t need three seconds. She slid off her stool and pressed their lips together almost immediately, her hands coming up to cup Kara’s cheeks as Kara’s settled on her waist. Her tongue darted out to trace Kara’s lips, and she parted them under the soft pressure.

Lena tasted like whiskey – ‘ _Definitely not apple juice, then,’_ a very distant part of Kara’s brain noted – and a shiver ran up her body when Kara’s hand slid under her shirt to trace patterns on her skin. Kara’s lips were tingling, and she wasn’t sure if it was from the kiss or the alcohol on Lena’s tongue until Lena’s hands moved. One went up to tangle in her hair and the other slid down to her back, pressing them together from the hips upward, and every place they were touching felt like a live currant running through her.

Eventually they slowed, and Lena trailed her lips down Kara’s jaw until her head was resting on her shoulder so they stood, swaying gently together with their arms around each other in quiet, blissful stillness.

The filter between Kara’s brain and her mouth had been temporarily short-circuited, which was why, after a long silence, she caught herself asking, “Where did you get real whiskey? I thought everything in here was just sugar water.”

Lena huffed out a surprised laugh, and Kara could feel her lips curve into a smile against her neck. “The bottles in the top right section are all real. The crew are occasionally more resourceful than we give them credit for,” she explained, then let out a long breath. “God,” she murmured, her words washing warmly over Kara’s collarbone. “I’ve wanted to do that for so long.”

“How long?” Kara asked curiously, and Lena raised her head with a pensive smile.

“Since the first time I met you,” she admitted softly, easing back out of Kara’s arms and slipping back up onto her bar stool, but tugging Kara forward to stand between her legs.

“The table read where you looked at me once?” Kara said, confused, but Lena chuckled and shook her head.

“No. I knew you didn’t remember. We met once before that,” she said, and Kara frowned as she searched her memory. “At a gala, Lex’s—”

“Lex’s party,” Kara remembered suddenly. “The one they arrested him at.”

Lena nodded. “You were there, wearing that incredible blue dress, and you were absolutely breathtaking. I begged Lex to introduce us,” she admitted, smiling wistfully. “He teased me about wanting to meet Supergirl.” Her smile dimmed as she went on. “He was all of three seconds into the introduction when NCPD burst in with a SWAT team to arrest him.”

“You were wearing red,” Kara said, the details of the night coming back to her in a blinding rush. “Lex introduced me to so many people that night, but you… I remember thinking you looked really sad. I was gonna try and make you laugh.” She reached up to tuck a loose strand of hair behind Lena’s ear, and Lena leaned into her touch.

“I didn’t think I’d meet you again. I didn’t _want_ to meet you again, after everything came out,” Lena confessed quietly. “I was sure you hated me. Then one day I get a message from Cat saying she wanted to cast you as the love interest and could I please go to a chemistry read. I panicked.”

Kara frowned at that. “It wasn’t you who suggested me to Cat? I thought…” They hadn’t talked about it, but Kara had been assuming that it was Lena who got her the audition in the first place as a kind of indirect apology, but Lena shook her head with an amused smile.

“Mike suggested casting you to needle me,” she said, and Kara tilted her head in confusion. “I walked out of an interview we were doing together because the reporter wouldn’t stop asking questions about Lex,” she explained, still smiling. “It was supposed to be the big announcement that we were dating. Rhea was furious, which meant she made Mike’s life difficult, so he was being petulant. He suggested you because you’d been Lex’s pride and joy, and he thought having you around would rattle me.” Her hand came up to toy with Kara’s collar as she laughed softly. “He was right, but not for the reason he thought.”

“I guess it sort of backfired on him,” Kara murmured, running a finger up and down the zipper of Lena’s jacket, watching her eyes darken the higher she got.

“It did,” Lena agreed, then tugged on her collar to bring their lips together again.

This kiss was softer, more exploratory, like a promise of something greater, and even after they separated, Lena kept her forehead pressed to Kara’s temple.

“Come home with me,” she whispered, her lips brushing Kara’s cheek, and Kara couldn’t do anything other than nod wordlessly.

**…**

When Kara woke the next morning, it was to the warmth of another body pressed against her and the feather-light sensation of lips ghosting up her jaw. She moaned in contentment and moved her hand to capture the fingers that were tracing patterns over her stomach as she opened her eyes to find Lena’s face inches from her own.

“Good morning,” Lena said, her voice husky with sleep, and leaned forward to pin Kara with a slow, thorough kiss that left her breathless.

“Hi,” Kara said shyly as they broke apart, brushing a stray hair off Lena’s face and tangling their fingers together on her stomach. “You’re amazing.”

“ _You’re_ amazing,” Lena countered, shifting back and settling on her side as Kara rolled onto her back.

“I can’t believe I didn’t know I wanted this,” Kara confessed softly, and Lena smiled.

“I thought you saw how I looked at you and you were just being polite,” she said bashfully. “I was _painfully_ aware of how much I wanted this.”

“So us sharing a bed at the con…?”

“Pure. Torture,” Lena admitted with a groan, dropping her head onto Kara’s shoulder. “I was a mess, I don’t know how you didn’t notice.”

Kara laughed. “Lucy told me yesterday that I have the emotional awareness of a soda can, and Alex has been calling me Captain Oblivious since we were teenagers.” Lena laughed, and Kara continued. “I prefer to think that your incredible acting ability blinded me to the truth.”

“Well, I am _very_ talented,” Lena said, her voice dropping an octave as the hand on Kara’s stomach slid lower. “What time do you have to be on set?”

“Two ahhh…two hours,” Kara gasped, arching against the weight on her hips. “But after today I’m done.”

“Good,” Lena growled, her teeth nipping at Kara’s ear. “We have lost time to make up for.”

Kara was late to set.

**…**

The three week hiatus went quickly. Kara spent the first couple of days in Lena’s apartment, ‘making up for lost time’, as Lena put it, surfacing only to assure Alex that she wasn’t dead.

Alex and Lucy worked through their argument, which Kara knew because she’d walked in on them aggressively making out in Alex’s apartment the day after they’d wrapped for the year. Kara had opened the door after her polite knock went unanswered to find her sister pinning her co-star up against the wall, one hand trapping Lucy’s hands above her head and the other hand somewhere that Kara thankfully couldn’t see. They’d sprung apart at Kara’s surprised squeak, and Lucy had spent the rest of the afternoon teasing her about her inability to make eye contact with either of them. Kara did pick up on a weird, subtle tension to their interactions, but they seemed mostly happy, and Alex didn’t say no immediately when Kara hesitantly floated the idea of a double date.

The four of them spilt up for Christmas, with Kara and Alex going back to Midvale to see Eliza and Lucy flying over to Metropolis to meet up with her family. Lena stayed in National City, but only because her mother had chosen it to host the annual Luthor Family Gathering, which Lena said she was obligated to attend, despite her personal feeling on the matter.

“I hate going to them,” she confided to Kara the night before Kara had to leave. “It’s just a bunch of obscenely rich people trying to outmanoeuvre each other. I hate playing the game. It was easier when Lex…” she trailed off, and Kara wrapped herself around her shoulders.

“You’re allowed to miss him, Lena,” she said softly, and Lena let out a shuddering breath and clung to her for the rest of the night.

Kara spent four days in Midvale before returning to National City. Lena picked her and Alex up from the airport, and Alex eventually had to drag them both impatiently away from the small crowd of enthusiastic fans who’d recognised them at the arrivals gate.

The mid-season finale aired two days before Christmas, and the resulting storm in the fanbase – of glee from the Sizzle shippers and dismay from the Jazabelle and Jara camps – hadn’t quite abated yet. Kara’s twitter mentions had gone completely insane, and she was sure Winn was blocking some of the more vitriolic ones, but she’d also been sent touching, heartfelt stories and messages that left her overwhelmed and crying into a very-confused-but-supportive Alex’s shoulder. She responded to as many people as she could, but the sheer number of tweets she was getting meant she only got to a fraction of them.

The storyline was well received by the critics as well, with a slew of positive headlines that had Cat preening. Kara knew she’d lined up a string of interviews and talk-show appearances for her and Lena, but she’d thoughtfully scheduled them after the hiatus was over, which Kara appreciated because it meant she could delay her fan-girl meltdown over meeting Ellen DeGeneres.

“You’ll love her. She really is as nice as she seems,” Lena assured her, watching Kara pacing her apartment with some amusement. Kara smiled at her, but didn’t stop until Lena rolled her eyes and tugged her down onto her lap, obviously deciding that distracting her would be quicker.

**…**

The end of the hiatus came too quickly for Kara, because, while she loved her work, she was dreading the return to filming for two reasons. The first was because she’d grown used to being able to touch Lena whenever she wanted, and that would have to stop once they were back on a set that leaked personal secrets like a sieve, surrounded by crew who traded gossip like currency. They’d both talked about it, and neither of them were ready to come out to the general public just yet.

The second reason attached himself to Lena’s hip as they walked onto set the first day back, wrapping an arm around her waist and leaning in to whisper in her ear.

“The BTS team is filming,” Kara heard Mike mutter. “Act like you missed me.”

Lena shot Kara an apologetic look over her shoulder before slipping into character, leaning into the one-armed hug and resting her head on his shoulder, and Kara spent the rest of the morning trying to hide how annoyed she was.

“I’m sorry,” Lena said later, after all but dragging Kara back to her trailer during their lunch break. “I’m trying to get out of it, but Rhea’s being very uncooperative. Apparently she has ‘plans’ for us.”

“It’s okay,” Kara told her, trying to sound convincing. She knew extracting oneself from a PR relationship without mutual agreement was a delicate procedure, and Lena really was trying, but watching Mike touch her whenever the mood took him – something Kara longed to do – was frustrating. “I know she can make your life difficult, I just…”

“I know, darling. I’m sorry,” Lena said again, sounding genuinely remorseful, and Kara leaned forward to kiss the frown off her face.

**…**

Kara’s character spent most of the next two episodes incapacitated by her wound, which meant most of the scenes Kara shot were just her laying in Isabelle’s apartment while the others dialogued over her. It left her with more free time than she was used to, which let her indulge one of her guilty pleasures.

“Oohh, did you know that those two actors from that medical sitcom are dating?” Kara said, scrolling through _StarFeed_ on her phone as Lena stumbled back into her trailer after shooting a long scene with Mike and Lucy.

“I still don’t know why you read that trash,” Lena said, dropping down next to Kara and slipping her shoes off.

“How else will I know what’s going on in our lives?” Kara asked with a sardonic smile. “For example, did you know Mike proposed to you on Christmas Eve?”

Lena rolled her eyes. “We were on opposite sides of the country on Christmas Eve,” she said, exasperated. “Rhea must have leaked it, she’s trying to force me to cooperate. I’ll deal with it later.”

“At least it’s Mike and not _Veronica_ ,” Kara said, trying to keep her tone light. She’d met the guest star once, and disliked her immediately. The feeling appeared to be mutual, and was, on Kara’s part, entirely due to Veronica’s haughty demeanour and terrible attitude and not at all because of her unfairly attractive cheekbones or the fact that she looked at Lena like she’d seen her naked.

A slow smile spread across Lena’s face. “Kara,” she asked, drawing her name out. “Are you _jealous_?”

“What? Pfft, no, I’m not…jealous…” Kara started, but trailed off when she caught the look in Lena’s eyes, and hastened to put her phone somewhere safe before Lena jumped her.

“That,” Lena murmured as she straddled her lap, punctuating each word with a kiss, “is actually kind of hot.”

“I just don’t like her, Lena,” Kara complained, feeling like Lena was poking fun at her. “I know you went to school with her, but I just—”

Lena silenced her with a kiss, then pulled back to look her directly in the eye. “Kara? I don’t want to talk about Veronica right now.”

“Okay, yeah, good idea,” Kara stuttered out as Lena leaned forward to claim her lips again.

**…**

They were not always as subtle on set as they perhaps should have been. One close call came at the end of a very long day of filming, when Kara was beginning to lose it. They were shooting what was supposed to be a tense, dramatic scene that would show Jax demonstrating the new extent of his powers, literally melting into the shadow of a wall and re-emerging to surprise an assailant. It was a very cool effect, and after it went through post production it would look amazing, but for the actual filming it was just Mike dropping to the floor and rolling away to get out of the shot, and for some reason Kara found it hilarious.

Finally, after Kara held it together for most of the scene only crack and start laughing at the very end, a despairing Mike turned to Lena, who was watching the filming from near the director’s screens. She’d been at a costume fitting and had stuck around to wait for Kara, and was smiling fondly at her antics.

“This is the eleventh take, can you please make her stop?” he begged, but Lena only quirked an eyebrow and held up her hands in a ‘nothing to do with me’ gesture.

“Go take five and calm down, Kara,” the director said anyway, rolling her eyes, and Kara flounced over to Lena.

“Hi, I’m sorry this is taking so long,” Kara said, hugging her. “He just looks so goofy when he falls down.”

“He does,” Lena agreed, then added softly, “but I know something that might help.” There was a gleam in her eyes that settled heat low in Kara’s stomach, and when Lena reached for her hand she let herself be towed to a secluded corner, where the gap between the set wall and the actual wall formed a dark, narrow corridor.

Lena couldn’t kiss her mouth without risking her make-up, but she made do, hooking her finger under Kara’s collar and dragging her lips down the exposed skin. Kara moaned softly and let her head fall back against the wall behind her, giving Lena access to more of her throat, and she was quick to take advantage, scraping her teeth over her pulse point before trailing up to nip on her earlobe. She spent the next three and a half minutes whispering in Kara’s ear, describing exactly what she wanted to do to her, slipping her free hand under Kara’s waistband to massage her hip as Kara’s breathing became more erratic.

Just as Kara was about to say ‘screw it’ and kiss her anyway, make-up be damned, the director’s voice echoed from the set, calling for a PA to go and find her. Lena pressed a very careful kiss to the corner of Kara’s mouth and stepped away, gently extracting her hand from Kara’s pants as she went.

“I’ll be in my trailer. Don’t keep me waiting,” she murmured, then disappeared back around the corner, leaving Kara leaning against the wall and uncomfortably aware of how aroused she was. She was still there a minute later, trying to control her breathing, when the PA stuck her head around the corner and looked at her quizzically.

Kara nailed the next take, and was heading for the door before the director had finished dismissing them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> seeeee i fixed the thing. hooray!
> 
> and so i sort of have a rough timeline in my head for the tv production stuff, but i'm twisting it to fit the story and also i never wrote it down anywhere so i might have screwed it up a bit. and i know episodes don't go from primary shooting to airing in three weeks, but ehhh artistic license and all that


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> holy shit guys, we're at the final chapter. this has been a crazy, awesome ride and i wanna sincerely thank each and every single one of you who commented and kudos'd and reviewed and messaged me and read this crazy fic that i threw into the void. the response has been so so amazing and i'm so stupidly happy that you guys liked reading it as much as i liked writing it. seriously, y'all are my favourite people.
> 
> so yup, we're at the end. endings are hardddd, which is why this took longer than the other (sry). i also haven't really proofread it? so yeah, if you spot typos or whatnot, my bad.

_ Blind Item: Drama and Heartbreak on the Red Carpet! _

_The red carpet last night was. Not. Boring. One well known and beloved couple sounded the death knell on their relationship thanks to some very saucy pictures leaked exclusively to_ StarFeed _, while a star from the same show made two shocking announcements with one well-timed smooch._

_Click here to read all about the coming out and crashing down, here to see the pictures than ended an engagement, and here to see our pics of the couple that survived the night!_

**…**

“I love you,” Kara said, bringing her hand up to cup Lena’s cheek. “I’m sorry it took me so long to say it, but I…”

“It’s okay, darling,” Lena said, leaning into the touch and closing her eyes. “I love you, too.” She tilted her head, brushing their lips together as Kara tangled their free hands together in her lap.

“Well, isn’t _this_ interesting,” a voice said from the doorway, and Kara and Lena sprang away from each other like they’d been burned. They turned to see a smirking Veronica Sinclair leaning against the door frame, and Lena grabbed Kara’s wrist as they both jumped to their feet, holding her in place.

“How did you get in here?” Lena demanded, her voice icy and authoritative, a sharp contrast to the death grip she had on Kara’s wrist.

“We all have our ways,” Veronica purred with a feline smile, pushing herself upright and swaying into the room. “But really, what you _should_ be asking is ‘what will I do with this new information?’”

“What do you want?” Kara asked shortly, shifting protectively in front of Lena as Veronica stopped uncomfortably close to her. She shuddered away as the other woman reached out to tuck a stray hair behind her ear then trailed her hand down to cup her cheek, and Lena’s grip on her wrist tightened in response.

“What I want,” she started, staring deep into Kara’s eyes. “…is to remember my line.”

“Cut!” the director called from behind them as Kara broke character with an inelegant snort of laughter. The tension of the scene dispelled instantly, and Veronica stepped back out of her personal space, calling an apology and turning to face the PA who’d hurried towards them with a script in her hand.

Kara dropped back onto the lounge, tugging Lena down with her as the crew scurried around them, resetting the scene. They were in Isabelle’s office, shooting a scene in which Spider interrupted an intimate moment between Sara and Isabelle to offer them a deal. It was the longest scene Kara had filmed with their new guest star, and she was striving to hide her dislike of the woman. It didn’t help that Cat was writing the villain as darkly seductive with everyone, including Sara. It was a dynamic that would play well on-screen, but the flirting, almost sinister in its playfulness, was making Sara – and Kara – deeply uncomfortable. Lena was similarly unhappy, if her expression was anything to go by. It was the third time they’d run through the scene, and each time they stopped filming, Lena’s face slipped into the neutral mask Kara knew she hid behind when she was frustrated and trying to hide it.

Her face was blank, but her eyes were burning, and Kara followed her eye line and realised she was glaring at Veronica. The guest star caught them watching her and smiled in a slow, lazy way that made Lena stiffen next to Kara, and Kara looked away, nudging Lena with her elbow in an attempt to distract her.

“Hey,” she said, shifting deliberately so she wasn’t facing Veronica. “The wrist grab was a nice touch.”

Lena finally shifted her gaze away from Veronica to smile at her. “It was instinctive,” she said. Her smile grew into a smirk as Kara yawned and dropped her head onto the backrest behind them. “Tired? You should’ve gone to bed earlier.”

Kara rolled her head to the side so she could shoot her an arch look. “I tried. _Someone_ was distracting me.”

“You were an enthusiastic participant, if I recall correctly,” Lena said, dropping her voice to a low murmur as her eyes sparkled with mirth. Kara longed to reach over and trace the line of her jaw, to brush the stray hair off her face, but she resisted. They were trying to be more careful on set, ever since the BTS crew had uploaded a photo of the two of them together on set to Instagram. _‘Getting into character!’_ had been the caption, and the picture had shown the two of them standing slightly too close, looking slightly too intimate, with Kara’s hand on Lena’s arm and Lena’s head tilted towards her.

The press had ignored it, as they often did with things that didn’t fit their narrative, but the Sizzle fans – their wonderful, dedicated fans who were a mostly queer fandom and therefore connoisseurs of subtext – had seen the picture and correctly interpreted it. Theories ran through the fandom like a wildfire, and ironically, it was only Lena’s ‘relationship’ with Mike that finally quelled the rumours, when the BTS account released a picture of the pair of them a couple of days later. Kara had still spent an uncomfortable few days avoiding questions on twitter, and having to lie to her fans left her feeling irritable and cranky.

“Okay, let’s try this again,” the director called as Veronica disappeared back out the door to await her cue, and Kara and Lena shifted on the couch, lining themselves up with the marks on the floor. “Go from ‘I love you’. Ready…Action!”

They ran through the scene another four times before the director released them, and Lena got more annoyed each time Veronica sashayed her way into Kara’s personal space and trailed her fingers down her cheek. She hid it well, but Kara could feel her irritation in the tightness of her grip and the way she pressed against her as Isabelle spat angry lines at Spider, and when they finally finished, she stalked rigidly off set. Kara moved to follow her, but the director incepted her to talk about the scene they had to shoot the following day, and by the time Kara escaped to Wardrobe, Lena had finished changing and was gone.

Kara changed quickly and headed for Lena’s trailer. She punched in the code and opened the door, but she barely made it inside before she found herself pinned to the wall by an aggressive, insistent kiss. The full length of Lena’s body pressed hotly against her, and a bolt of desire shot through her as Lena slipped a leg between her own.

“Now who’s jealous?” Kara teased breathlessly, and Lena trailed her lips up to nip at her earlobe.

“Shut up,” she whispered, slipping a hand into Kara’s pants as Kara moaned and arched against her.

**…**

Their drama wasn’t the only one on set, though. Kara had learned very early on that the Hair-and-Makeup assistants were like oracles when it came to on-set gossip, because they were perfectly positioned to hear about _everything._ All of the actors, from the leads to the lowly day-players with no lines went through their trailer, and Kara knew that if she kept quiet or pretended to fall asleep as they worked on her, she could overhear any number of interesting titbits. They weren’t always correct, but they were comprehensive, and it did make the otherwise-arduous process of getting made-up more interesting.  The stylists knew the actors listened to them, and they’d come up with code names for anyone they talked about, but they weren’t nearly as sneaky as they thought they were.

“Did you hear about Golden Boy and Snake Lady?” one of them asked one morning, and Kara had to work to supress a giggle at the names. Golden Boy, she knew, was Mike, and Lucy had told her that Veronica had been dubbed Snake Lady within ten minutes of arriving on set.

“No, what happened?” the other assistant replied from where she was working on Lucy, who actually was asleep and not just pretending like Kara.

“Cat’s mousy little assistant caught them making out in his trailer,” he said, and Kara stiffened slightly.

The woman clicked her tongue in disapproval. “Poor girl. He’s been stringing her along for ages.”

“I really don’t understand how he’s got so many women chasing him. Even Sunshine went all googly-eyed at him for a while. Princess has to know he’s cheating on her.” Kara winced at that. Sunshine and Princess were her and Lena respectively, she knew, and she was surprised that he would discuss her so openly when she was actually in the room, codename notwithstanding.

His colleague apparently agreed. “Kevin!” the woman hissed, and the guy – Kevin, apparently – scoffed.

“What? They’re sleeping, they can’t hear me,” he said defensively, but he did move on to another topic, and Kara filed the information away to mention to Lena.

**…**

“I don’t care who he sleeps with,” Lena said later, when she and Kara were curled up in Kara’s apartment after filming had wrapped for the weekend. “Although I’m not surprised it’s with Veronica. She always did like taking my things.”

“He’s not technically _yours_ , though,” Kara pointed out, feeling oddly defensive.

“She doesn’t know that. But you’re right,” Lena admitted with a small smile. “Once I’ve sorted this out, he can do what he wants.”

“How’s that going, by the way?” Kara asked, keeping her voice light. She was making an effort to avoid bringing it up, not wanting to push because she knew what a delicate situation it was, but the continuing charade was frustrating her.

“I’m working on it. Mike doesn’t care either way, but he doesn’t want to piss his mother off and Rhea’s not cooperating. My publicist is looking for options that won’t completely destroy both our reputations, but…” Lena trailed off, shrinking in on herself as guilt etched itself across her face. “I’m _trying_ , Kara. I promise.”

“I know you are. C’mere,” Kara said, tugging on her arm until she relaxed across Kara’s lap, letting Kara card her fingers through her hair as she curled against her stomach. “I’m not blaming you, it’s just…frustrating.”

“I know. I’m sorry.” Lena shifted up so she could rest her head on Kara’s shoulder. It left most of her weight resting on Kara’s lap, but Kara didn’t mind, just looped an arm around her waist to steady her as her breath washed warmly over her collarbone.

“I am surprised you let yourself get talked into something like that without an escape hatch,” Kara murmured after a long silence, careful to keep any trace of accusation out of her tone.

Lena closed her eyes and sighed. “I didn’t plan a way out of it because I didn’t think I’d need one,” she admitted softly, making Kara’s heart ache. “I never expected…this. _You_. After mother and Lex, I didn’t think anyone would want anything to do with me.”

“Hey.” Kara brought her hand up to cup Lena’s cheek, tilting her head so Lena would meet her eye. “I want you. I _love_ you, and I don’t care how long this takes, that’s not gonna change,” Kara told her, trying to put every ounce of what she felt for her into her words. Lena’s eyes were wide and shining, and her mouth was curved in a shy, awestruck smile.

“ _Kara_ ,” she whispered, leaning into the hand on her jaw, and Kara swiped her thumb under her eye, catching the tears as they fell. “I love you,” she murmured, her voice catching and cracking, and Kara tilted her head gently to bring their lips together.

It didn’t solve everything, but it was enough for the moment, and they spent the rest of the night twined together, each breathing the other’s name.

**…**

The season flew by at an almost alarming pace, and before Kara knew it, it was award show season. _Dusklight_ had been nominated for a slew of awards, which Kara knew because Eliza sent her a message every time another nomination was announced, usually accompanied with _‘so proud of you, honey!’_.

Kara had lost track of which award event they were heading to, but it was big and important enough that the network had insisted that the whole cast be there. The limo they sent had a well-stocked champagne fridge, and as a result, they were all more than a little buzzed by the time they got to the red carpet. There were nine of them, with the main cast, plus Veronica, Alex – who’d ostensibly come as Kara’s plus one but had been pressed closely against Lucy for most of the ride – and the woman that Demos was trying to impress into sleeping with him.

They were all dressed up and looking stunning, but Kara was having trouble keeping her eyes off Lena. She was dressed in red, which was a colour that Kara loved on her, and her hair was styled in elaborate curls that cascaded over her shoulder. Kara spent most of the ride over with one hand wrapped around her champagne flute and the other curled around her stomach in an effort to stop herself from giving in to her desire to run her fingers through it.

 Mike and Lena exited first as they pulled up to the red carpet, with Mike helping her from the car and playing the perfect gentleman as he linked their arms together, and Kara was impressed with herself for feeling only slightly annoyed at that. Lucy went next, but stayed near the door, helping the rest of them out with a mocking flourish that made Lena smile at her and Mike roll his eyes.

Kara tugged Alex along with her as she made her way up the red carpet, stopping every couple of feet to sign an autograph or take a quick selfie with the fans along the barricade. She lingered with them for longer than she probably should have, but eventually Alex – probably acting on instructions from Winn – nudged her towards the lines of reporters waiting further along. The rest of the cast was there already, split between the different outlets, and Kara approached a reporter-and-cameraperson team she recognised from other events as Alex melted into the background to keep Demos’s date company.

Kara didn’t mind doing red carpet interviews, because they all tended to be the same three or four questions over and over. It meant she didn’t need to put too much thought into her answers after the first interview, which left her able to keep an eye on the rest of the cast, as well as the other famous people that were wandering around.

Eventually, the flow of the crowd guided her around until she was standing a few paces away from Lena, who was talking to the reporter from _StarFeed_ , judging by the logo on his microphone. Kara smiled at her as they made eye contact, but her attention was claimed by another reporter before she could approach her.

Kara was close enough to overhear Lena’s interview, however, and she keep one ear on it out of habit, picking out the familiar cadence of Lena’s voice almost instinctively. She was used to the flow of these interviews now, so when the _StarFeed_ reporter stopped talking abruptly, Kara couldn’t help but glance over. The reporter had his head tilted and a finger pressed to his ear, obviously getting a message in his ear piece and Lena frowned but waited patiently as his eyes widened noticeably, before he schooled his features back to neutrality and returned his focus to the interview.

“Ms Luthor, what’s your response to the pictures that have just been released confirming that Mr Matthews is having an affair?” he asked, unable to hide the undercurrent of sick excitement in his tone. Lena froze, and Kara politely excused herself from the print journalist she was talking to, but he’d stopped paying attention to her anyway, having shifted his focus to a message that had popped up on his phone.

“Excuse me?” Lena asked, and Kara could see the way she was striving to control her expression.

“The pictures that confirm Mr Matthews is sleeping with your co-star. Do you have any response?” he asked again, and Kara froze in her tracks as Lena shot an inscrutable look in her direction.

“I’m afraid I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Lena said, aiming for polite confusion but not quite masking the icy anger in her tone, and the reporter motioned to the cameraman.

“One moment. Charlie, c’mere.” He fumbled through the satchel hanging from the cameraman’s hip and extracted a tablet. “Here,” he said, passing it to Lena after flicking through it for a moment.

Kara couldn’t see it from where she was standing, but Lena’s eyes grew flinty as she looked at the screen. The other reporters around them were starting to excuse themselves from their interviews, turning their cameras towards Lena instead, but Lena ignored them.

“May I borrow this?” she asked, not waiting for the reporter’s enthusiastic nod before she turned on her heels and stalked towards where Kara had last seen Mike giving interviews further up the red carpet.

Kara followed her, but Lena was doing her angry, sweeping stride that covered a surprising amount of ground, and the dress Kara was wearing wasn’t designed for rushing around. By the time she caught up to Lena, there was a ring of people around her and Mike, and every camera within fifty feet was pointed at them.

“What’s going on?” Lucy asked as she and Alex approached to stand on either side of Kara. Vasquez and Demos were on Lucy’s other side, and all of them were watching the spectacle with almost identical looks of confusion.

“I’m not sure, a reporter asked Lena something about some photos and she took off over here,” Kara said, trying to crane her neck to see through the crowd without looking undignified. Lena wasn’t yelling, but she was clearly furious, and she was hissing at Mike from between clenched teeth, brandishing the ipad at him while he paled and held his hands up in a calming gesture.

“Holy shit…” Vasquez murmured from Lucy’s other side, and Kara glanced over to see her staring down at her phone. Demos looked over her shoulder then started laughing while Lucy just shook her head in disbelief.

“What is it? What…” Kara trailed off as Vasquez passed her the phone, and Kara finally saw what all the furore was about.

The phone was on _StarFeed_ ’s website, and had the main page pulled up. ‘Dusklight _Star Caught in Compromising Embrace!’_ was the headline, and the article had several thousand hits and no words. It didn’t need any, the pictures more than spoke for themselves.

It was Mike and Veronica. It was Mike and Veronica _fucking,_ and Kara’s face contorted itself in disgust as she thrust the phone back towards Vasquez and Alex rolled her eyes. She recognised the room they were in as a prop room from set. Veronica was sitting on one of the workbenches with Mike tightly wedged between her legs, which were curled around him. Mike’s pants were loose around his hips, and her dress was rucked up around her waist, with a scrap of lace hanging off one ankle. Mike’s head was buried in her neck, and in most of the pictures Veronica’s was thrown back, but there was one, towards the end of the set, where she was staring over his shoulder directly into the camera.

Kara felt the hair on the back of her neck prickle, and she glanced around to see Veronica herself watching her from the stairs near the entrance, amusement all over her face. She smiled and gave Kara a slow, lazy wink then turned and disappeared inside, leaving Kara staring at her retreating form, feeling like she’d missed a page.

“C’mon Lee, it’s not like that…” Mike said, his voice carrying through the ring of people and pulling Kara’s attention back to them just in time to see Lena slap him sharply across the face. Mike stared at her, stunned, and Lena thrust the ipad she was still holding back to the reporter hovering at her shoulder before she turned and stalked through the crowd, who melted out of her path. Kara made a split-second decision and moved to intercept her, catching her arm just as she cleared the ring of people.

“Lena, are you…” Kara started, but trailed off when her girlfriend fell into her arms as cameras flashed around them. Her shoulders were shaking lightly, and Kara thought she was sobbing until her teeth scraped over Kara’s collarbone and she realised Lena was trying desperately to muffle her laughter. “Are you okay?” Kara asked, half-worried that Lena had lost it completely, but Lena only nodded into her shoulder.

Kara was painfully aware of the number of cameras pointed at them, and she looked around desperately for a moment before grabbing Lena’s wrist and tugging her into the tiny partitioned area just off the red carpet and out of view of the reporters. It was designed as a private room to quickly fix make-up issues or wardrobe malfunctions, but at that moment it was empty, and Kara heard Lucy and Alex lingering near the door, stopping anyone else from coming in.

“Lena, are you okay? What was that, I don’t—” Kara stopped abruptly as Lena surged forward and kissed her exuberantly.

“That was me publicly, irreversibly breaking up with him. It’s done, Kara, I’m free.” Lena explained, grinning like a maniac, and Kara matched her smile despite her confusion.

“But what about Rhea? You said…”

“Those pictures were my ticket out,” Lena murmured, her thumb stroking Kara’s cheek. “It was my one requirement going in, that he not embarrass me. If the ‘relationship’ ever had the potential to damage my reputation I was out.” She laughed softly. “Getting caught screwing a guest-star I’ve known for a decade definitely counts. Rhea’ll be angry, but she can’t do anything. I’ve got leverage now,” She laughed breathlessly again. “Would it be weird if I sent Veronica a thank you card?”

“A little,” Kara said, but she was grinning widely as Lena tugged her closer for another kiss.

They stayed in their tiny bubble of a room for another few minutes, fixing their make-up and schooling their expressions into appropriate just-broke-up-with-boyfriend masks, but Kara couldn’t help slipping her hand into Lena’s as they exited and found Alex and Lucy hovering nearby.

“Are you okay?” Alex asked, looking between them with a concerned frown. “Do you want me to shoot them? I could shoot them.”

Lena smiled at her. “No, but I appreciate the offer. I think they actually did me a favour,” she said, smiling over at Kara.

“Are you two gonna jump each other? Because I think another shock might actually kill about half of them,” Lucy said sardonically, gesturing towards the reporters, most of whom trained their cameras on Lena the moment she reappeared.

Kara smiled. “Not tonight. We just want to… _be_ …for a while.”

Alex and Lucy both tilted their heads, and Alex glanced pointedly at their joined hands.

“I’m being a supportive friend! Friends hold hands,” she said, trying not to pout, and Lucy grinned at them as Lena swayed towards her but stopped herself.

“At least your girlfriend will actually touch you in public,” Alex muttered with a hint of bitterness, making Kara and Lena freeze as Lucy whipped around to stare at her, sputtering inarticulately.

“That?” she said, when she was able to make real words. “ _That’s_ what this is about? For fuck sake, Alex.”

She took a moment to glare pointedly at the journalists still lurking nearby to watch them, then stepped towards Alex and pulled her into a very blatant kiss. Lena tugged Kara out of the shot as the cameras started flashing wildly in their direction, but they were still close enough to hear Lucy mumble “I love you, you stubborn idiot,” against Alex’s lips.

“You do?” Alex asked, sounding surprised. “But…we never go out anywhere, I thought…”

“Because I didn’t want you getting mobbed by paparazzi! I’m not ashamed of you, Alex,” Lucy said, sounding almost exasperated, and Alex’s answering smile lit up her face. “I love you,” she repeated, loudly enough for the closest reporters to hear her, and Alex tugged her back into her arms.

“I love you, too,” she murmured, kissing her again, then straightened and stared at the cameras. “Oh god. My captain is going to _kill me_.”

Lucy laughed and linked their arms together. “He hasn’t so far. You’ll be fine. Jonn loves me. Now c’mon, we have awards to win.” She tugged Alex towards the entrance, and Alex caught Kara’s hand as they drew closer, pulling her along. Kara’s other hand was still tangled with Lena’s, and that was the picture Kara saw most often repeated later, of the four of them, linked together and grinning giddily.

 _Dusklight_ won every award it had been nominated for, and it was only the third best thing on Kara’s list of things that happened that night.

 

**_Fin_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so yup, thats all she wrote. there might be a sequel? we'll see. i have ideas, but whether or not i write them down is another matter. 
> 
> i love y'all for indulging my weird actor au ideas that only started coz i was off work and trapped at home by myself and someone on tumblr said a thing. your comments and whatnot inspired me to keep going, and y'all are awesome.  
> thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou <3
> 
> owly out (o,o)

**Author's Note:**

> come yell at me on [ tumblr.](the-ominous-owl.tumblr.com/) i gifs things sometimes.


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